‘Intelligence and poverty can live side by side’

Phil Creighton talks to the writer a coming-of-age tale of two Belfast siblings, set to Oasis, The Jam and Sam Fender, which comes to Artsdepot later this month

A woman with red hair and a man with brown hair, with their mouths open shouting — The cast of Anthem for Dissatisfaction

Sibling rivalry, tight budgets and a family on the breadline. No, it’s not today, but a flashback to 20 years ago. Anthem for Dissatisfaction, a play that follows two Belfast siblings from the 2007 credit crunch to the cost-of-living crisis, is coming to Reading and Newbury this November.

The 65-minute drama is a coming-of-age tale as it follows Sarah and Jamie from boisterous 11-year-olds to the end of their 20s. Fused with a soundtrack that features bands and musicians such as Oasis, The Jam, Thin Lizzy, Bruce Springsteen, Sam Fender, this is a tight and fast-paced look at what it means to grow up on benefits in a country where poverty became a punchline.

It tells the story of siblings Sarah and Jamie, who are growing up in Belfast with a shared obsession of music and the weight of parents on the breadline. Rock, pop, and punk rail against austerity Britain and an ever-failing government, giving them an epic score as they navigate lives destined for different paths.

Jamie is the baby of the family. He has absolutely no tact, no patience and no filter. Sarah is 11 months and four days older which means she’s smarter, she’s cooler and she’s right about everything. She was right that Oasis were freedom, she was right that Manic Street Preachers were poetry, and she was right to be worried when dad lost his job. And in 2023 everything’s going wrong again, the bills keep going up and the opportunities keep going down.

Sarah and Jamie aren’t two kids in one bedroom anymore; the future is uncertain, and there’s only so long you can hang on to the past.

Written and co-directed by Gina Donnelly of SkelpieLimmer Productions, the 65-minute show stars Emily Lamey and Simon Sweeney and won awards at the Edinburgh and Dublin Fringe festivals in 2025.

For Gina, the play began with a title she wrote down years before she knew what it would become: “I had this inkling that I wanted to write something about working-class music, and something about identity, as I felt that the working-class representation in theatre wasn’t great. It felt a bit tokenistic, or written by people without lived experience, and I wanted to do something about that. It took me a few years to work out what that would actually be and what story it would be outside of me talking about all the bands I love.”

The story came to the playwright following a Sam Fender concert in 2023. After the gig, she was chatting with her sister about music and the pleasure of hearing such a strong working-class voice on big stages. The pair have been going to gigs together since Gina was about 13. “The conversations at that gig kind of made me think that I could write a story about two siblings and write about the relationship of them two through music.”

Brassneck Theatre Company commissioned the play, and Gina chose it for its roots in bringing theatre into communities. The news came as a phone call from her co-director, Tony Devlin, just before Christmas: “He rang me and said it’s not good news,” Gina says. “Then he went, ‘No, no, it’s not good news. It’s great news!’”

The cheeky stunt led to excitement, but that high led to a low, as she recalls: “I was in the shower washing my hair, and I suddenly had this feeling of ‘Fuck, now I have to write it’. I have to write this play, and someone’s paying me to write it. I can’t get it wrong.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous for an opening night of something than I was for the opening night of Anthem for Dissatisfaction.”

But she also knew she was in good hands: “Brassneck have really strong roots in putting theatre into communities and do a big festival in West Belfast every year. They’ve engaged loads of new working-class writers, they have a youth programme and I really wanted to work with them,” Gina explains. “I pitched the idea that Brassneck would put in for me to be commissioned.

“I had a call with Tony to explain the idea to him, and he was so excited by it.”

Tony adds: “Gina’s play is an explosion of working-class frustration against a system, specifically designed for them not to succeed. It’s a powerful and hilarious commentary on the cost-of-living status quo as well as the current state of chaos in the world, told through two characters that we cannot help but love and wish to succeed.”

A large part of the play is its soundtrack: familiar tunes to many and songs that help shape the story. Gina says that they were careful not to overwhelm the script with the music: “The music should be something they spoke about and a backdrop, as opposed to the leading thing … we could have got carried away and done two acts of non-stop songs.”

The restraint meant they chose songs that audiences would recognise or that would elicit an emotional reaction. In the end, the show found a happy balance, helped by the stars, Simon Sweeney and Emily Lamey, “I was very confident in them,” Gina says of the duo as they approached opening night.

“What surprised me most, I think, was that the response to the play was amazing,” she continues. “A lot of people came up to me and said, ‘I feel like I can relate to it’. I hadn’t really been expecting the massive emotional response. In hindsight, that’s a good thing as I wanted people to feel very seen by it.”

The response was such that Anthem for Dissatisfaction is now on a UK tour, taking in venues including including Artsdepot in North Finchley. Gina says this is unusual for a play that originated in Northern Ireland, thanks to the country’s arts funding structures. This meant that she was focused on its original audiences in the Province. Everything else has been an unexpected – but welcome – bonus.

“I’m very, very happy that it has gone on tour because, although it’s set in Northern Ireland, it’s a universal story about classism and social issues and family and all the things that bring people together, and was very strongly created to be a show about the importance of art in people’s lives and the issue of living in a world where art is becoming less accessible to people,” she explains.

Some audience members will be thinking that 2007 was 20 minutes ago, not 20 years ago. Does it feel that way to Gina?

“I remember that period very well,” she says. “That era is the first time I felt very aware of my own class and financial status, and the financial pressures within my house. Obviously (the credit crunch) was a big news story and was affecting a lot of families.

“Sometimes it feels like a long time ago, and it is kind of mad that the play does span nearly 20 years. It wasn’t really something I set out to do, it just made sense that the starting point was the recession and the end point was the cost of living crisis kicking in again, coinciding with Sam Fender having a voice.

“I think it ends joyfully. There is 100 per cent a feeling of frustration and entrapment, but it was really important to me that that sense of not knowing what was coming next wouldn’t pull the characters down. The overwhelming part of the story is the importance of those two people in each other’s lives and what they’ve done for each other. Although they are tired, they are still ready to fight for a better life for themselves and for the people around them.”

What does Gina hope that people leave the theatre thinking? “That a lot of what they have grown up with or seen in terms of representation of working-class people is wrong, whether that’s their background or not,” she says.

“I hope that anyone who is working class will feel like they’ve been seen and that their voice matters. And anyone for whom that isn’t their lived experience, I hope they feel like they’ve been given an insight into an experience that helps them understand why statistics that we see in the news aren’t just statistics. It’s not, oh well, if you don’t have enough money or if you’ve ended up on benefits you’re lazy or didn’t work hard enough. Everyone’s life can change with the flip of a coin and anyone could be that person.

“Intelligence and poverty can live side by side.”

Her next project, again with SkelpieLimmer co-founder Seón Simpson, is a different proposition entirely: “It’s a new play about stunted adolescence, and it’s sort of a modern rom-com,” she promises.

Anthem for Dissatisfaction is at Artsdepot on Saturday 28th November. Tickets are available here.

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