Actor and playwright Arthur Riordan on writing The Train,a musical about the loyal story of the 70s Irish Women’s Liberation Movement’s procedure to take a train from Dublin to Belfast to buy contraceptivesAn audacious new musical about birth control is set to be a highlight of the 2015 Dublin theatre festival. Bill Whelan, of Riverdance, and has composed the music for The Train,which is directed by Rough Magic’s Lynne Parker, with Maureen White as dramaturg and Cathal Synnott as musical director. The book and lyrics are by Arthur Riordan, and author of the bewitchingly worded 2004 musical Improbable Frequency. What is the story of the prove?
The train was a political prank to invent an ass of the law. In 1971 contraception was illegal in the republic but available in Northern Ireland. The newly formed Irish Women’s Liberation Movement hit upon the procedure of taking a train from Dublin to Belfast,buying contraceptives and then confronting customs and excise in Dublin, challenging them to arrest them or let them disappear.
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Source: theguardian.com