My Valentine’s Boy aims to tackle the tragedy of gambling addiction here in the North but the play approaches the subject with some Derry witty dark humour.
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00:00First off, could you just introduce yourself, please?
00:02My name's Martin O'Brien.
00:04And Martin, can you tell me about your play, what it's called,
00:07and kind of like a quick introduction to it?
00:09The play is called My Valentine's Boy, and it's set on Valentine's Day in Belfast.
00:14There's a dairy couple up there for the day.
00:17They go away every Valentine's Day.
00:19They meet another couple, Julie and Jerry,
00:26and because of the meeting they discover that Jerry has a bit of a problem with gambling,
00:33and Kevin used to have a problem, so he tries to help him,
00:37but it's like talking to a brick wall.
00:40He's not listening.
00:42And we find out that everybody, all the main characters, do nothing but lie.
00:47The preacher, Elvis, Leo, the bankrupt bookmaker,
00:52they bring the light side of it,
00:56but it's about a gambling addiction story,
01:00but we try to draw the audience in with humour first,
01:05and then we get the message across, hopefully, on the light.
01:10But it's definitely a good play to come and see.
01:13If you have anybody in your family that has a problem with gambling,
01:18it's one of the biggest addictions at the moment in Northern Ireland.
01:24Can you tell us what inspired this play?
01:27What made you decide to write it down and bring it forward?
01:31Well, my own life story would have been the inspiration behind it,
01:35but it's not my story by no means.
01:38It's a story from all the people I've met over the years that have been in recovery.
01:45It's a mixture of a lot of different people.
01:50As it says, it's based on a true story,
01:53but it probably would have been better if it was based on true stories, you know?
01:58Gambling took my life away,
02:01and I just believe that by sending this message, by doing this play,
02:06it might help somebody just go through all this.
02:10Can you introduce yourself, please?
02:12Hello, my name is Linda-Jane O'Neill, and this is...
02:15Cathy McCann, hi.
02:17Hello, and could you just introduce yourself to your characters in this play?
02:20Oh, my name is Julie in the play,
02:23and I play a character who is from Belfast.
02:27My name's Sharon, and I'm married to Kevin, and...
02:32Okay, tell me, what draw you spoke to this play?
02:35Reaching out and trying to do new experiences.
02:39So this is the first time I've ever done anything like this.
02:42Wow.
02:43And Sharon's English, so I had a natural advantage with my accent for once.
02:49So I've been dying to get back into theatre and acting,
02:53and this was a great opportunity, because obviously, you know,
02:56Sharon's in her 50s, I would like to reiterate, I'm just only in my 50s,
03:00but, yeah, this is a great opportunity.
03:05You know, Sharon's in her 50s, she's English,
03:08and I could really relate to the character in other ways as well,
03:11but I don't want to spoil that.
03:13You are kind of clairvoyant, aren't you?
03:15I am clairvoyant, yeah.
03:16Naturally gifted.
03:17Yeah, naturally gifted.
03:18Talented, good-looking.
03:20I don't think the good-looking bit was in the script,
03:22otherwise I wouldn't have auditioned.
03:24Roll with it, darling, roll with it.
03:26Tell us, like, to be in your first acting role,
03:29that must be kind of scary to say, isn't it?
03:31It is so daunting.
03:34Traumatic, even.
03:36But having said that, it has certainly crossed my mind
03:40that I've bitten off more than I can chew,
03:42but do you know what?
03:43With the pros on the team,
03:47they're all keeping me right and giving me extra lessons,
03:51so it's been brilliant.
03:52I've loved the experience, but, yes, it's scary too.
03:55And can you tell me something about your past work?
03:58In terms of acting?
04:00Yeah, in terms of acting.
04:02Well, I haven't actually done anything
04:04for a really, really long time,
04:06but when I was younger, I was in a play,
04:10it was actually an Irish play by an Irish writer,
04:14Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer,
04:16which is a completely different play,
04:18it's a restoration comedy,
04:20and, you know, it started off in the UK
04:24and then we went on a European tour
04:26around Belgium and Germany and France,
04:28so that was a fantastic opportunity I had
04:30when I was really young,
04:32but, you know, many, many years later,
04:35I've come to do this.
04:37And how would you encourage the audience
04:39to come and see this play?
04:41It's just sheer entertainment
04:43from beginning right through to the end.
04:45It covers much laughter,
04:48a few bits of dark humour,
04:50but, yeah, well worth a laugh, well worth a visit.
04:53And I think it's a really,
04:55there's some really, really relatable issues in there,
04:59but also some very important ones,
05:02such as the issues around gambling
05:06and how that's become a real problem
05:10for our community.
05:13Across Northern Ireland,
05:15there's a growing number of people
05:17who are experiencing problems with gambling
05:20and this play really looks at those challenges
05:24and where it can all go wrong very quickly.
05:28And some of the tragic...
05:30Repercussions?
05:32Repercussions is the word I was looking for, yeah.