A new play about the Dunlop motorcycle racers.
“There’s a grey blur and a green blur, I try and stay on the grey one” Joey Dunlop
“The gods envy us because any moment may be our last” Achilles
The pandemic has seen all of us recalibrate how we think about the balance between risk and tragedy in our everyday lives. THE SAFETY CATCH, by Nick Snow, takes you inside a world where this trade-off is a way of life. In our story, as in Antiquity, mortal risk is the price of glory, and tragedy is the often-extracted toll.
Our hero’s family has paid a heavy price for its glory, and now he must make his own choice; should he lay aside his way of life to save himself and his family from further suffering? Or is his life not worth the living without the risk he chooses to take and the glory that it brings?
It is ‘Achilles Dilemma’ debated at a time when it has become obvious to us all that the safest option does not come without a cost.
Michael Dunlop is the scion of the most famous dynasty in Road Racing – the world’s most dangerous sport. We find him shortly after his brother William has been killed in practice for a race in Ireland. Through a dialogue with his mentor, he examines the joy his obsession brings him, his fear of its consequences, and his dread of a time when it is no longer part of his life.
For the rest of us, do the chances these racers take offend a civilised society? Or are they symbolic of something that seems dormant but remains important somewhere in our psyche – do we still sense that life is never so vivid as when risk, mortal risk, lingers around every corner?
Cast and Creatives
Written by Nick Snow
Directed by Joe O’Byrne
Michael Dunlop – Andrew McCracken
Liam Beckett – Fra Gunn
Set design – Dee Armstrong
Lighting design – Cathy O’Carroll
Sound design – Mark Gavin
