‘BinLids’ to get 3-week N.Y. run

Working to establish a cross-cultural exchange program between Belfast and America, a group of community and business leaders in Northern Ireland and the United States is bringing the play “BinLids” to New York for a three-week run in October.

The play, which was developed by JustUs Community Theater and Dubbeljoint Productions, is the first in a series of events to promote exchange between the two regions.

The cross-cultural program is intended as a non-secular, apolitical way to promote a clearer understanding of Irish culture and to draw Irish America closer to Northern Ireland.

The play itself deals with the 30-year-long struggle of the people of West Belfast for civil rights. Material for the play was taken from hundreds of interviews over a six-month period. The actors themselves, all from Northern Ireland, have not only heard these memories but lived them too. That experience is expressed in the form of a reenactment of the community’s trauma, and an examination of the reality which is often misinterpreted.

Manhattan’s Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts has been contracted for a three-week run and the opening night is scheduled for Oct. 8.