They are both great to work with – and we're friends as well, so it's not just a working relationship," explains Large, who is currently developing a dramatic screenplay titled Normal Lives set amid the explosion of ecstasy culture in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.

In the weeks that followed the statement, Dundonald and Lisburn were thrust into conflict as DLA water-bombs burst across the new ‘super-council’. By in large, the DLA enjoyed the unwavering support of the Dundonald people but anyone who was found to be dissenting would be severely dealt with. The DLA ruled their territory with an iron rod and administered ‘de-baggings’ to anyone found to be engaging in anti-social behaviour or who was outspoken against their regime. I try to take everything that crops up and look at it from both points of view through these characters. It is a lot of fun because you wouldn't get away with saying some of the things that these guys say in real life. Yet the arts community has as much spirit as Ms Donnelly’s characters, Susie who is “feisty” and Norma who will go toe-to-toe over her principles because she knows she is right. As Donnelly observes, many in the business have worked away in London or elsewhere but choose to return: “We may not make much money but theatre matters. We’ll say, there isn’t a lot of funding but let’s put something on anyway.”

Stephen expressed his frustration that for all the fine words that ‘it’s okay not to be okay’ and that we should all be open about our mental health, there’s been very little tangible progress.

As you may have gathered, his work on the Dundonald Liberation Army has proved a useful safety valve for venting Large's frustrations with certain aspects of everyday life here. While some take to social media to rant about what irks them, it's all grist to the DLA's mill. The loss of his younger brother and his friend, followed soon after by the pandemic, made for a very difficult time in the playwright’s life. However, he found solace in his work, and he hopes that the new show next week will be able to provide a measure of respite for some in the audience. The MAC was an excellent choice of venue when staging the show as the humour is quintessentially Northern Irish and there is no better place to take the hand out of ourselves than the heart of Belfast city centre. Stephen’s debut screenplay Normal Lives (2018-2020), about the dance scene and life in post-Good Friday Agreement Northern Ireland is in development with the Northern Ireland Film Board.Stephen G. Large says with feeling that “theatre is the only unfiltered version of what’s going on. People may say you should rein it in, maybe if you’re working for the BBC”. He’s the top man or miscreant of the DLA and represents a portmanteau of all sorts of illustrious figures. Wasn’t there one loyalist paramilitary known as the Mexican?” Laughter breaks out. For Stephen, along with that sense of accomplishment will be the memory of three young men who lost their lives in the last few years. In honour of them, he has teamed up with the suicide prevention charity PIPS to offer billboard advertising throughout the promotional campaign for Vote DLA, as well as pledging to make a donation at the end of the run.

And when I was going through a particularly difficult time in the aftermath of my brother's passing, Stephen was the one who eventually got me out of the house a couple of weeks after the funeral, brought me for coffee and gave me a pep talk. I haven’t been at a show in a long time where the crowd were as loud and invested in what was going on in front of them - many a ‘yeooo’, cheer and roar of laugher bellowed through the MAC all night and it almost felt like a crowd at a stand-up comedy gig compared to the usual theatre goers. You might think satire is dead but playwright Stephen G Large got a few hits with this ambitious Trumpian story of the Dundonald brigade going legit and finally storming the Lisburn and Castlereagh council chamber. He’s been a writer on Radio Ulster’s award-winning A Perforated Ulster for the past six series, while his sitcom pilot Meet the McMelters debuted on the same station in October 2021.

Offers

However, DLA's second-in-command Horse becomes increasingly resentful of Davy’s lavish new lifestyle as a public servant, with a seemingly bottomless expense account. Horse rejects the DLA’s ceasefire and splinters the movement. And then when you go and see these shows and you see a room full of people belly laughing at your jokes, it's a great feeling. Stephen’s stage comedies Carol’s Christmas (2016), Three’s A Shroud (2017-2018), and A Dog DLA Afternoon (2019), have been sell-out successes in venues including the Grand Opera House and Waterfront Hall. Then Jo Donnelly and Matthew McElhinney stepped up to the mark with a love scene between Davy and posh Norma. He confided shyly, maybe after a manly bevvy or two, that his mum had always said she didn’t know who his father was. If the comedy is broad, it needs to move along, as in Mrs Brown’s Boys. In fact, this show might make a decent half-hour comedy on the box.