Talking Talk Radio Blues

By the time you read this, the final show for Talk Radio should have sold out. You probably know that the play was originally delivered by Eric Bogosian, made into a fine move and has now been staged in Belfast during the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. The central character, a scowling misanthropist who smokes like a lab dog and deals with a host of irritating callers, is played by my Radio Ulster colleague, Joe Lindsay.



The play came out of a previous period of economic and social doledrums, but the sentiments ring true again. The airwaves are pursued by reactionaries and weirdoes. The youth are fixated by dumb ideas, psychos lurk in parking lots and even the nicest liberals are riven by prejudice. The final monologue, barked out by Joe with righteous ire, was an intensely lovely thing to hear.