Description
By: Austin Duffy
1994, the summer of the ceasefire. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent protest against British rule, a community plays out its end game. Francie, a principled elder of the cause, has authorised the murder of a policeman; his teenage henchmen are triumphant at pulling it off. In the town square, the Widow Donnelly protests because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, the daughter of a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her, and pathological Handy Byrne, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control. Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes. Cross is an extraordinary act of ventriloquism, intimately capturing the language, humour, loyalties and divisions within a lawless town, where violence is rewarded and complicity is second nature. It is an intricate tale of betrayal and brutality at the height of the Troubles, a moving, powerful and empathetic lament for a community that has lost its way in its battle for the nation.
1994, the summer of the ceasefire. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent protest against British rule, a community plays out its end game. Francie, a principled elder of the cause, has authorised the murder of a policeman; his teenage henchmen are triumphant at pulling it off. In the town square, the Widow Donnelly protests because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, the daughter of a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her, and pathological Handy Byrne, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control. Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes. Cross is an extraordinary act of ventriloquism, intimately capturing the language, humour, loyalties and divisions within a lawless town, where violence is rewarded and complicity is second nature. It is an intricate tale of betrayal and brutality at the height of the Troubles, a moving, powerful and empathetic lament for a community that has lost its way in its battle for the nation.