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The Civilisation Game

THE CIVILISATION GAME was produced by the Lyric Theatre, Belfast 29th April-26th May 2012 – playing to 60% in a 400 seat theatre. Established in the 1960’s, the Lyric is Northern Ireland’s only repertory theatre. THE CIVILISATION GAME is a comedy of manners and a satire on conformity following a young middle-class couple moving into a desirable area only to find themselves compromised by an unwanted guest in the form of a burglar with a mission.

The challenges here lay in writing a play about class, one that was extremely political, although its characters were oblivious to this; to mix comedy and mystery genres and to present the action in real time with surreal storylines. The conceit was a conscious twisting of the central story of An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley. In using a recognisable structure, the plot deliberately allows the audience to be one step ahead most of the time, while being wrong-footed and surprised at crucial moments.