Photo: Carole Rosegg
Exclusive Q&A by Brad Balfour, Arts Editor
Probably nobody is better suited to be in “Ulster American,” the latest play being performed on the main stage of the Irish Repertory Theatre, than actor Geraldine Hughes. Born in West Belfast, Hughes grew up in Divis Flats where she experienced life in a war zone. As a child, Hughes never spoke of the horrors she witnessed in Belfast.
Hughes participated in her school’s drama club as a way to get herself through the tough times of The Troubles there. At the time, the Catholic and Protestant factions were warring with each other while the British government was trying to maintain control. Through it all, she loved school and enjoyed the structure it provided. It was where she escaped from The Troubles.
When Hughes was 14, American TV producers auditioned hundreds of children in Ireland for their film, “Children of the Crossfire.” Of those auditioned, Hughes was one of three who were chosen to participate in that 1984 film, launching her film career. After being chosen for her role, Hughes spent her first United States summer. She had no acting experience beyond her school’s drama club before accepting the role of Mary in the movie.
Once she left Belfast at the age of 18, Hughes stayed in Los Angeles for 16 years. During her first years in Los Angeles, Hughes became a part-time nanny to Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman’s children. She then moved to New York City, married and launched her own one-woman show.
After a theater performance, Hughes was contacted by a casting director and asked to audition for the role of Marie in “Rocky Balboa,” the role she is arguably best known for. Hughes continues to work in the field of performing arts having appeared in films such as “Duplex” and “Gran Torino.” She also played Mary Todd Lincoln in “Killing Lincoln.”
Hughes’ 2003 one-person play, “Belfast Blues” detailed her real-life experiences in Belfast. Her performances of this play are dedicated “to all the children who live in places of conflict.” It garnered several awards and many positive reviews.
Now, in playwright David Ireland’s “Ulster American” — currently playing at the Irish Rep — Hughes is making her mark in another striking way. The show unfolds in the comfy London home of theater director Leigh (Max Baker), who’s about to begin rehearsals of a new play about a man in the midst of The Troubles. Oscar-winning actor Jay (Matthew Broderick) is the play’s star who styles himself as a feminist and liberal while expressing extreme views that prove to be awkward at best.
Eventually, they’re joined by Belfast-based playwright Ruth (Geraldine Hughes) and the tension ratchets up when Jay resists following her script as he comes to understand it. Along the way, Ruth insists that she’s British and not Irish despite her accent and hometown. Ireland explodes a lot of preconceptions as the show rapidly moves towards its unexpectedly bloody conclusion.
David Ireland’s “Ulster American” runs through May 10, 2026 at The Irish Repertory Theatre in the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage. It’s one hour and 30 minutes long with no intermission.
Q: What a play! How much did you know about it before you got the role?
Geraldine Hughes: I was the one that suggested the play. I read it years ago and wanted to do it.
Q: What intrigued you about it? What made you want to do the play and see it produced here in the States?
Geraldine Hughes: It’s a very complicated and important play. It gives the audience a perspective from a Protestant point of view, which is very well written and investigated. It’s written by an Ulster Protestant himself, David Ireland. And for me, as a Catholic Irish nationalist, growing up in Divis Flats in the height of the Troubles, it was fascinating to hear some of the things that Ruth had to say.
But that’s just one aspect of it. There’s a lot of irreverence and provocation in the play concerning misogyny, racism, and all of these things. I think it’s important that theatre prompts a reaction that affects and provokes. I feel like it’s a really pretty serious play set within a very dark comedy.
Q: In talking to people, or just thinking about it yourself, was it relevant in ways beyond just the particulars of the Troubles?
Geraldine Hughes: Oh, yes, absolutely. I think the play comments on itself. It’s about humanity and how people live in terms of, for example, celebrity. It investigates the notion of celebrity and how we view celebrity and what we let celebrity get away with. And it investigates the role of women in this business and how they potentially are treated. So it’s definitely not a play just about the Troubles. It’s a play about so many other things. It’s an hour and 20 minutes and it’s all packed in there.
Q: It was fascinating. I didn’t even notice its length. And I didn’t want an intermission. I’m glad there wasn’t one.
Geraldine Hughes: You didn’t want an intermission because why? You didn’t like the play?
Q; No, the pace is so energized that you wouldn’t want anything that would break the momentum. I wanted to see where it was going to go. I didn’t want to step away from it.
Geraldine Hughes: Exactly. I think once the train leaves the station, that’s it. It’s on the journey and you get on for the ride, and then there’s quite an ending. When we spoke to him David Ireland, [he said that David] Mamet is a huge influence on him as one of his favorite playwrights. I know a couple of people who have come several times already and said the first time they saw it, they felt sort of breathless at the end because they didn’t know where it was going to go.
Q: It’s interesting you say that. It turned into a horror story suddenly.
Geraldine Hughes: Well, there’s a lot of references to Quentin Tarantino in the play and he has a lot of violence in his films. I think there’s quite a lot of violence in David Ireland’s plays.
I don’t know if you ever saw “Cypress Avenue”, but that was one of the most violent endings to a play I’ve ever seen. Martin McDonagh is another “inverted commas” Irish playwright who has a lot of violence. And it’s interesting how people are reacting to this.
I wonder, is it because the woman is the one imparting the violence? There seems to be such a strong reaction to what she does at the end. But when you think about what she’s had to listen to for the past hour and 20 minutes, and the patience that she has served — that is never, of course, an answer to anything. But I do think that it’s in line with how David likes to end his plays. [To avoid a spoiler, that will remain unstated here.]
Why was [his ending] so shocking for you? As someone coming to see this, what was it about the ending that was so shocking? Is it because a female’s doing it?
Q: No, not specifically — yes, female, but not because she’s a “female”, but because she has probably endured abuse over the years as a woman, as an actor first, as a playwright. And it’s been building. We don’t know all that background, although we can guess it. And this one event is so precipitous that it causes her to go over the edge.
Geraldine Hughes: I don’t think it’s inferred that she’s been an actor, but she’s certainly a playwright.
Q: But there’s certainly the sense that she might have been, because she is very theatrical as a person.
Geraldine Hughes: Well, she comes from a working-class unionist background, just as I came from a working-class nationalist background, even if she grew up in the ‘80s [while] I grew up in the ‘70s. But there would have been a lot of violence, and she would have been surrounded by people who were violent and that was sort of a means to an end.
I think when you grow up in a place like that, no matter how much work you’ve done on yourself, or how educated you become, how worldly you become, there’s a possibility of that in all of us who have suffered trauma and seen that kind of violence around us as children. For me, that’s how I think about it: that it’s animalistic. A switch goes off and that’s it. I think [for] people who come from that kind of environment, that is always a possibility, which is terrifying and awful.
Q: In light of what you’re saying, maybe people forget. We see Ireland today as a very progressive country, with a lot of women in power there. We forget what Ireland was like in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. It was a repressive country with an old line Catholic, paternalistic, male-dominated church. A lot of people felt betrayed by the Church once Ireland was made a state, because they had these idealistic, progressive views when they were revolting to get rid of England. Then suddenly they get oppressed by the Catholic Church. Besides that conflict, there’s the many years of the way women had been treated there. Now she’s become this recognized playwright who’s had to work her way up from that.
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah. That’s right.
Q: And you make the character come alive because you understand that.
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah. As you know, women always have to fight for their place. I also think that women [had] a very, very, important role in Irish politics and continue to be important. Without women, the peace process wouldn’t have happened. I’m just going to say that. I think the women are the ones doing the work behind the scenes. And it was a very mostly male group of people who represented what was going on.
You look at Bernadette Devlin, look at all of the great females — not only politicians, but just leaders. I would go as far as to say even my mother and the group of women who would clean up the bricks, the bottles and the glass after the riots and who kept a sense of dignity for us and a sense of normality as much as they could. I think Ruth comes from that working class kind of family. She has to stand her ground with these men, and she has become very successful.
At the same time, she’s in a room where a movie star and her friend, a director, wants to change her work, because [of] this whole notion of celebrity. I’ve been on calls, and I’ve been a producer, a director, a writer, and actor, of course. I’m not a big, mad, raging feminist by any means. But this play has certainly reminded me of how much I’ve had to fight to be a voice in the room. I’ve had women who’ve come to the play and had great satisfaction at the end, because they say, this is not how we ever want to solve things, but we can be pushed. And it is still a very uneven territory.
Q: Yeah, it’s ironic. She has the most testosterone in the room, in a funny way.
Geraldine Hughes: There you go. But perhaps I’d replace that with “strength.”
Q: It’s interesting, also, in light of a lot of other media that’s come out –– like the movie “Belfast.” There was a really fascinating play at the Irish Arts Center about the Troubles, about the peace process and getting it done.
Geraldine Hughes: Oh, it was called “Agreement” — yes.
Q: Yes, “Agreement.” And that shows the strength of the women in that play.
Geraldine Hughes: Yes, yes.
Q: It was like a flip side to this, in an odd sense. They just had that play at the Irish Rep, about the British soldiers, “The Honey Trap.” It’s a side you don’t often see portrayed in any film or theater [production.] Although you could also say that “Anemone” — the recent movie done by Daniel Day-Lewis’ son Ronan — also deals with it from a different perspective.
Geraldine Hughes: Yes, I haven’t seen that yet. I’d like to see it. Have you watched it?
Q: Yeah, I’ve seen it. It’s ironic that there’s the guy he plays in Jim Sheridan’s “In the Name of the Father” –– the one film from the point of view of ….
Geraldine Hughes: Yes, Gerry Conlon.
Q: Yes, exactly. And then he’s doing the one from the point of view of a British soldier.
Geraldine Hughes: Yes, that’s fascinating.
Q: It’s interesting that he has to get his head into these two different places. Maybe he needed all these years and his son to provoke him to do something like that. Although it’s unfamiliar territory overall, in a way, it’s familiar territory because these issues are being addressed from these other points of view.
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah, oh absolutely. As a woman now, I think women enter their 50s and the No Apology tour begins. And, unfortunately, it takes us sometimes a long time to figure out who we are and how to stand up and speak up. I think the way that you talked about Daniel Day-Lewis is exactly how I felt about myself playing this role. This wee girl would have grown up on the other side of the Wall — I mean, I grew up in Divis Flats [in Belfast], and then we moved to the Peace Line.
That wee girl would have been on the other side of the Wall and would have been someone I feared. Here, I am speaking her words and trying to get into the head and the heart of someone who grew up with a completely different identity. Identity is a huge subject, of course, with the play. How she identifies and how she’s criticized and spoken over and told that’s not who she is. And she tries to explain that “This is how I feel, this is how I was raised. And this is how I identify.”
Which, of course, opens up the whole question of the Protestant communities now in the North of Ireland who are struggling with that, as the inevitable referendum will come around for a united Ireland. So, people leave the play and have a lot to talk about, whether it’s Americans talking about the misogyny or trying to understand Northern Ireland politics or — what, why, is she British? What is that all about? Hopefully it provokes people to go out and learn a wee bit more about what all of that means, because it is complicated.
Q: Funny you mentioned David Mamet. He’s pretty conservative and right wing in many ways. A lot of the things he does have very strong military, male expression. But yet, he’s a playwright that’s accepted for that. So it’s really interesting to see this now because it comes as a shock when [your character] says, “I am conservative. I am British.” You’re shocked enough with that. Then, of course, is the ending, which really just puts the, shall we say, nail in the coffin?
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah, I know. It’s interesting that it is the assumption that we make, especially of artists, that we’re all liberals. Listen, I am not a conservative. On the record, I am not a conservative. I’m not a Trump-supporting Republican like David Mamet. The reason I brought him up was basically because of the rhythm of the piece. And David Ireland can speak for himself in terms of his own politics.
But when we started to get an audience, I forgot how shocked the audience would be when I said those words. And indeed, how shocked Leigh is, who’s my friend, and it’s interesting. You can have long friendships with people and not really get into the politics of things. I think that’s changing a wee bit today. For me, certainly, I think it’s very important for me to know people’s politics because I have very little patience for those who think that this current administration is to be supported. But I think it’s when I talk about being a conservative — of course, that is the English UK conservative. [Ruth] probably thought Margaret Thatcher was great as well. So she’s an interesting one to play. That’s for sure.
Q: To think of MargaretThatcher as any kind of a sex object is also a fascinating idea. I don’t think anybody ever ran around thinking of Thatcher as a sex object. So to talk about her as the object of his sexual assault is kind of funny, too, and weird, and in a strange, humorous way.
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah, there’s a shocking reaction to that, which I didn’t anticipate either. But I don’t necessarily think it’s about her being a sexual object….it’s about a celebrity who’s getting carried away with his own narcissistic thoughts and pushing the conversation to a point where someone else feels so deeply uncomfortable that they have to come up with the name.
It speaks to the idea of how much do we put up with celebrity. If people are around movie stars, how much do you actually put up with? There could be irreverent, unacceptable things said, but, because they’re a megastar, a lot of people would almost forgive that in the moment or pretend we didn’t hear it, which is what we do in the play.
Q: While the play is actually taking the piss out of that kind of behavior and everything else.
Geraldine Hughes: Yes, exactly. Yeah. But isn’t that terrible though, that that’s where we’re at too? it’s like the silencing of how we feel. if you can say things gracefully and with respect, that’s the only way we can move forward.
But just to go back to the Northern Ireland thing and the subject of identity… Like you were saying to me just now, “I’m Jewish,” and I’m saying, “Well, I’m Irish and ok brilliant!” Let’s celebrate all of it. And I’m not trying to be idealistic. I’m actually trying to be on the side of humanity. I listen to and follow Gabor Mate, who is a trauma specialist and amazing man. If you listen to that, you pay attention to the fact that we are all human beings, we all bleed the same blood.
The thing about doing this play is that it brings up so much to talk about: how women are treated, how celebrities are treated, how we traverse this world of being in the arts, and how you’re supposed to feel about things as an artist and what you’re supposed to represent. At the same time, have a good old belly laugh while you’re watching it. The play expects a lot from the audience, I have to say. Just remember it’s ok to laugh!
Q: What did you three discuss when you were talking about it? Obviously, you bring a level of authenticity that forms the essence of the play. It’s a good thing to cast someone like Matthew [Broderick]. Or Max Baker, who did the part in England. Matthew does understand what stardom is. He’s obviously a guy who doesn’t revel in that stardom and all that. He’s low key, just like that and not a guy full of himself as the star. All of you bring to it a certain level of authenticity. The other two might want to turn to you and ask you, “What do you think of that or this or that? Were there conversations like that?
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah, of course I can talk about the North and the politics and all of that. Matthew can certainly talk about his celebrity. Max Baker is a director himself, as well, and is an English artist. I think all three of us brought a great authenticity to the parts and could identify in many ways with who we’re playing. I think during rehearsal, it was a lot about how the hell are we going to learn all these lines? This is a hard one to learn.
Q: There’s a lot to say.
Geraldine Hughes: Oh, we have a lot to say indeed as a drawing room comedy disguising a serious play. But the three of us got along really well. I’ve never had so much fun and in such a relaxed and confident environment. With Ciaran at the helm, of course, and working at the Irish Rep is one of my favorite things to do in the world. I want to do it more.
I’m glad they’re doing plays like this. It’s this whole idea of acknowledging the present and the tomorrow Ireland, as well as the past. So, it’s important to point to the future as well and to acknowledge current playwrights and to celebrate them. But yeah, the whole process of rehearsal was genius. I’m glad the sun is shining because of the winter. Trudging in that crazy weather was pretty awful.
I’m very, very grateful that the Rep are doing the play and that we get an opportunity to show it to many audiences. I can’t believe how fast and how full the audiences are. It’s basically sold out, which is mind boggling, that people are leaving their homes to come and sit in a theatre and listen to us tell the story. That to me is always a miracle.
Q: Did you see the play “The Honey Trap”?
Geraldine Hughes: “The Honey Trap.” Yes, I did.
Q: Oh, good, because I do feel it’s funny in a way, it’s a corollary to this one. In a way, seeing the two, it informs you further than if you just see one or the other.
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah, that’s a good point.
Q: The very fact that the Rep is doing this kind of stuff elevates the level the Rep is at now.
Geraldine Hughes: Exactly. I think that the classic Irish plays are still plays that I want to do and want to see. But these modern new playwrights are very, very important. Ciaran and Charlotte are very smart to be showing the world these young and interesting and complicated current Irish writers … although David Ireland would not identify as being Irish. But from the North of Ireland, certainly.
Q: Well, he has the name “Ireland.” He can’t get away from it, right?
Geraldine Hughes: I know. Isn’t it crazy that that’s his last name? I forgot to talk to him about that, actually. I must write to him about that being his last name. I find that amusing and I always forget to talk to him about it.
Q: The biggest thing is that I just don’t want to give anything away. I don’t want to make a spoiler. I think we didn’t do it. We’ve done well.
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah, that’s why we have to be careful not to give too much away, although I think a lot of journalists already have [done so.] But I don’t think people care. I don’t think people read reviews too much anymore anyway. But people like to go in with an open mind, which is nice.
Q: It was an interesting casting choice to pick Matthew because he’s able to be so low-keyed that he catches people by surprise — like, how did you miss the point of the play? Obviously, the playwright knows that’s the part that’s funny. The humor has to turn on that. You go in always thinking that the play is going to be about the Republicans, not about the other side’s point of view. I think that’s the interesting part of the play. I’m assuming the audiences coming to the theater are not from the Protestant side of Belfast or [wherever].
Geraldine Hughes: I think it’s important. It’s a really great casting choice, because you could cast that part very obviously. I think if you have an obnoxious load, a narcissist from the very beginning, then it could perhaps become intolerable very quickly. But because Matthew has such vulnerability about him –– a very sort of quiet, curious, inquisitive take on this guy –– and then what comes out of his mouth [laughs] is like “What did he just say?” It makes people have a more settled reaction to him. But as the play goes on, it does — and it should — become intolerable.
Q: It’s interesting that Max Baker is like …. I feel sorry for him in a way, because he’s caught between a rock and a hard place, as the character and as the actor playing the character. It’s like, did he misunderstand it, or did he get it? Now he just wants to completely negate the fact that — and then it appears that he didn’t get it. That’s even crazier. He finds out that your character is not who he thinks she is.
Geraldine Hughes: Exactly. I think at the beginning he’s had a wee bit to drink, so he’s putting up with the shenanigans of the celebrity. But it becomes very complicated because he has said something, and then doesn’t reveal that he’s said something to my character. Then when I call him on it, it causes disruption with the other guy. So that’s where it becomes very complicated.
And, it’s about putting on [Ruth’s] play. All three of them are awful people, actually. It’s all about getting the play on and being successful. He said “You know, you’ll never get to meet Quentin Tarantino, and I’ll never get to run the National. So don’t say anything.” So I don’t say anything, but then they push me and I bring it up, Then it’s revealed that he lied to me about his reaction to it. You have to traverse all of this stuff because if you explode too soon or if you have a big reaction too soon then you have nowhere to go. The tension of the play builds and builds and builds, and then it cracks.
Q: The ultimate irony is that on the one hand, you’re playing the woman that is a liberated playwright, the woman that has finally risen above. And then it turns out that she turns out to be this reactionary.
Geraldine Hughes: They are all deeply flawed. All three of them are deeply flawed. It’s absolutely true: there are no heroes in this piece.
Q: That must be an interesting irony to play.
Geraldine Hughes: Yeah, it is. And I love it, because when I entered the play, it’s full of excitement, and although I have just left a crazy situation behind as well. This is about people who want things. This is about an American movie star who really wants to do a great Irish play on the West End. You get these movie stars who are doing plays now. All these celebrities are on the stage: “Oh, I wonder what it would be like to do Broadway? Let’s go to the West End and do a play.” And the play will sell out because they’re famous. Which is just how the world is right now. Then you have a director who really does want to run the National. And you have a playwright who wants to be lauded and eventually go to Hollywood. They all have wants –– big, big wants, in this play –– and that drives everything they do.