I

n the program note for his most recent play, Belfast playwright David Ireland claims that ‘he became a playwright after being unemployed and unemployable as an actor for three years, despite having trained as an actor for three years at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and performing with many UK companies ...’ On the basis of Ulster American, it seems a pretty canny career move.

First produced at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this blistering satire on theatre, society, theatre and society, both Irelands, politics, Brexit, and narcissistic thespians grabs the audience from the outset and never lets up. In a modest, serviced apartment, an egotistical American-based actor of Irish descent and a fey, self-centred English director come together the evening before rehearsals are due to begin to talk about the script they are intent on turning into a West End hit – with or without the support of the author.