Sadie review – lockdown Belfast drama is hilarious and harrowing Mark Lawson In Cyprus Avenue (2016) and Ulster American (2018), which won awards and caused walkouts, David Ireland established a signature tone of farcical nightmare. Ulster Unionists (his own community) are driven to outlandish non-paramilitary violence by their perception that they are a despised minority in Ireland, the US and – despite long historical loyalty to its monarchs – the UK. His new play, Sadie, was due to have its world premiere at the Lyric in Belfast. That was blocked by lockdown but it was filmed in the empty auditorium by the BBC as part of the Lights Up festival of streamed theatre. It’s another provocative comedy of intolerance, but takes into fresh domestic territory the earlier plays’ themes of long memories, violent revenge, and the possibility of forgiveness and forgetting.