 from Manor Cunningham Andrew McCracken who is currently playing the lead role on stage in Dublin in a new play called The Safety Catch and it's about the legendary motorcycle road racing Dunlop family. The play is actually transferring to the Playhouse in Derry for one night this Friday night and the story of the Dunlop family features in this play and it's a story that's well known to many of us but also the basis of the play is really the world of motorcycle racing and Joey Dunlop died in a crash at the age of 48 his brother Robert was similarly killed at the age of 47 and Robert's son William died at the age of just 32 so in this play a lifelong friend of Roberts is trying to persuade Roberts other son Michael to give up racing and retire and Andrew plays Michael in this play it's called The Safety Catch and I'm delighted now that Andrew joins us on the line and we're streaming live as well if you want to have a look and Andrew good afternoon to you. Good afternoon how you doing? Good good this is um this play is getting good reviews and it's a it's a subject it's an area I suppose that a lot of people will be familiar with and the story of the Dunlop family and it's sad and fascinating in an equal measure but it gives us in a way gives us an insight into the the mind of members of the family who just felt compelled to race and at great risk to themselves. Yeah it's amazing when we have been performing the show you have people who are maybe from motorbike racing families so their families continue to race on the roads or others are just motorbike enthusiasts and that thing that keeps coming out in conversation is that they can't imagine not doing it and even though they know the risks especially those who race on the roads the idea of stepping away means they lose a part of themselves and the kind of core question that Nick Snow who wrote the play always brought himself back to when he was writing was is the risk worth the reward and I think for the Dunlops that idea of risk everything risk your life but also you could be the greatest of all time is at the heart of the play and if you gave up this thing would Michael quit being who he is is kind of something I as an actor had to keep on questioning so yeah like it is a really fascinating insight into the world of it but also the mindset of people who are racing on the routes and in a way you had to get into that mindset because it was all about the bike and the road and the speed and the sport and it was all all sort of a drug really and and you had to in this you have to position yourself in there and and and put yourself in that position yeah exactly and it's so funny you know our first show we originally did the show down in Manor Hamilton in County Liedrum so we had an initial run back in May 2022 and there was an audience member came up to me after and he was like do you race are you a motorbike racer yourself and I was no I've never like I actually I've been around the Northwest 200 a good bit but you know that you know a push bike is the length of my experience on bikes and he couldn't believe it he couldn't get his head around it and I was a great compliment for me but I think it's also it gives you again an insight into what it means to people that the amount of audience members that have come up and gone that's it you know the way that's described is exactly what it's like to be on a bike so it's a real fascinating insight I mean my mum wouldn't like me to say it but I reckon I'm you know I'll be interested in getting a wee 125 just a you know method acting go Daniel Daileus on it but you have been to some of these races have you to to experience them yeah so I've been to the Northwest 200 when I was growing up I though I am my parents live in Manor Cunningham now and I've been around it I originally I was from the North Coast so I grew up in an around Port Rush Corian when I was a teenager and so on so it was a big part of my day-to-day well not my day-to-day life but every year you kind of you couldn't get around certain roundabouts and all that sort of thing and I've kind of been brought up and going you know you go into Ballamoney in the Joey Dunlop leisure centers there and the Memorial Gardens there and Joey's bars there so growing up in and around Corian Ballamoney all those places the Dunlops are a big part of the fabric of the area it's a big part of their story so even people who don't race motorbikes or aren't interested in motorbikes know that story of that family so it was a real privilege to get the chance to play this like this part and have the chance to really put my community on stage you know in a way in a way it says role you are you're meant to play and they there's obviously in the play there's parallels drawn between the Dunlops and the families of Greek tragedies and you know I don't know if it's fair but that's that's the way it's outlined in the the play and your character as well there's a there's obviously a real conflict going on you know should he or shouldn't he all to wear the risks but it's racing it's in my blood so you you address it this with the other characters but you also address the audience yeah well so and there's two actors in the play so it's myself and another actor called Fra Gunn so Fra's role is much more interact with the audience and I interact much more with Fra but Fra he plays Liam Beckett who is a commentator on the roads was Robert Dunlops mechanic used to manage football used to manage Korean and Institute football clubs fun little fact for you but Fra's character addresses the audience and brings in that comparison the Greek myth and I think it's a really interesting thing because a lot of people would go oh the shows is just about motorbikes but it's a real show that covers life covers death that covers doing what you love and whether as I say risk is worth the reward so those characters in Greek myth who their father fought in the field in a battle and they died and then their uncle took up the sword and they take up the sword and so that parallel it's not necessarily I think unfair because actually for each of these family members they choose whether they go back on the road whether they go back on the field and the show at the end of the day deals with grief and trauma and whether you can overcome it now it is there is comedy in it so there's a few laughs so even if that sounds like why could you do that we get a good few laughs as well from it but it's that that wrestle that keeps going on between whether he his destiny is to keep on racing or not and Greek tragedies of often explore that is kind of is it nature or is it nurture or is it a combination of the two it's it's said in the shed the two you're having this conversation in in a the backdrop of a shed which is almost like an atypical male setting but there's also is there a sequence towards the end that involves a road race and and how is that handled well I mean you have to come along the Dairy Playhouse in the 25th of November at 8 p.m. to find out yeah but yes it's so there's a bike on the stage and so we've been generously given a bike by a road racer and so that throughout the play Michael's working on this bike and as we kind of get towards the end of the play the choices are being made whether he's going to carry on racing or not so all I can say is there's some great music there's some interesting video tricks and all and then there's myself on the bike so you have to find out to see how those things all come together and there's three helmets on stage as well yes so there's I don't want to give away too much but yes there's three helmets that sit throughout the play and different in a kind of in a different place and they kind of move towards the end of the play but each of them represents one of his family members who's passed away and it's that idea that throughout the play there's this throughout all of the conversations throughout all of the debate throughout all of the wrestling through this question behind Michael there's always the helmets there's always the memories there's always the the need for his family to give him advice to give him counsel as what the best thing to do is and again that's quite great tragic it's quite a epic story for for what is a very local story well I think you've explained it really well and you've certainly wet the appetite so if anyone wants to go along there's still a few tickets available for the playhouse in Derry one night only this Friday and it's transferring from Dublin was called the safety catch Andrew do the pleasure chatting to you thank you you too thank you have a good day knew this week at home store and more all our Christmas table linen is half price that's right