Centre Stage Theatre Company’s Staged Reading of Halftimers

21st & 22nnd October
Portview Trade Centre & Banana Block

Centre Stage Theatre Company will be performing a staged reading of Halftimers written by the late Roma Tomelty, as part of the Linen Biennale NI festival. The company are working with Fortwilliam Musical Society, to give their young people a chance to work professional actors/musicians and challenging them to bring the production to life with over a weekend. This staged reading will include street games, the play itself with music of the Belfast streets, songs sung by our mill workers and will give an insight into the lives of children working in the mills.

It will be a staged reading of the play and the company are thrilled to be doing it as part of the Linen Biennale NI. Bringing the children to rehearsals in Portview Trade Centre (a former linen mill) means the young people will get to rehearse in the very place where those young workers once stood. 

The reading will then be performed in Banana Block, the adjacent former mill, for friends and families. We are excited to get started!

“We are thrilled to be involved with this project with Centre Stage Theatre Company and the Linen Biennale. This is a tremendous opportunity for our young people to learn from experienced professionals and work with a script from local playwright Roma Tomelty. The young people are very excited” – Hilary McKee, chairperson of Fortwilliam Musical Society