What The Animals Say

Two ex-classmates wait for the Stranraer ferry back to Belfast…

Jimmy is a struggling actor chasing the break that never comes.

Eddie is a celebrity footballer who, despite being Protestant, is the captain of Celtic.

At first, they reconnect over football, Father Ted and the staunch Unionist culture they grew up in, but what begins as banter spirals into confrontation as buried resentments, betrayal and violence rise to the surface…

Provocative and hilarious, David Ireland’s explosive debut play is a portrait of two men trapped by the stories they tell themselves and each other.

First performed in 2009 at Òran Mór, Glasgow, as part of their legendary A Play, A Pie and A Pint season, and newly urgent in an era of renewed political tribalism and sectarianism, What the Animals Say is where it all began…

Harry Burton directs Robbie Martin and Matthew Blaney returning to the Finborough Theatre after his OffWestEnd Award nominated performance in David Ireland’s Not Now.