The Dundonald Liberation Army

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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. 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. But although it gained audience applause, I’m not sure the Tina Turner Simply the Best sequence, with beautiful tribute photo and dates of the late great singer, entirely worked.

Gerard has also worked as a presenter for CBBC on Ukool for 5 years and also worked as guest presenter on Fully Booked. Gerard has numerous panto and small screen credits and he is the founder of Pintsized Productions and Artistic Producer at Sodabread Theatre.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. If someone's saying 'I'm not going to watch that, I don't like politics', trust me: there's a lot more to it than that.” 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. New show Vote DLA sees ambitious ideologue Davy hoping to swap violence for votes in his quest to free his home town from the grasp of Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council - and he’s dragging his reluctant compadre along with him. To be honest, I didn’t totally last the course. The second half contained a brief, video-led storming of the hated Lisburn and Castlereagh Council chamber, and a funny Stephen Nolan show spoof with the three political figures debating the big issues.

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. Following a recent sell-out run at the MAC, the fictional cross-community paramilitary group will present their final saga 'Vote DLA' in June 2023.I've moved round different areas but I haven't managed to get out yet. But I haven't had any problems – everyone sees it for what it is and no-one is taking it too seriously. I take the p*** out of a lot of working class things, but it's all stuff that I have experienced – I used to take my PE kit to school in a plastic carrier bag. Following a recent sell-out run in The MAC, the Dundonald Liberation Army are set to cause havoc on the Grand Opera House next year.

I wanted an illustration. The actors agreed to do a scene or two. First, we had an illustration of the bad stuff that is meat and drink to satirical playwrights. It dealt, naturally, with money and expenses, with Davy the Venezuelan, clearly nouveau riche at heart, claiming he was so thirsty after working for the council away from home that he had to stay over in a hotel and quaff quite a bit of thirst-quenching Champagne more or less for health reasons.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. It's so much easier, because when I'm sitting on my laptop having imaginary conversations in my head I can 'hear' their voices and 'see' their facial expressions as I go – and that really, really helps," says the 41-year-old father of three, whose other work for the stage includes Three's A Shroud and Carol's Christmas. Writer, Stephen G. Large, said: “Vote DLA is the final instalment of the DLA trilogy, and there is no better place to showcase it than the Main Stage of the Grand Opera House.

The DLA’s style—bling, fake tan, ostentatious facial hair—is unmistakably that of loyalist criminal godfathers. Their performances have attracted working-class Protestant men who might not normally be theatre-goers. Yet at times the dotty rhetoric is reminiscent of Irish nationalism. Stephen Large, creator of both the DLA and “Three’s a Shroud”, insists he is an “equal-opportunity offender”, who tries to show proper disrespect for all sides.

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Gerard trained at The Lir National Academy Dramatic Arts, Dublin, and Rainbow Factory School of Performing Arts, Belfast. The funny thing about us as characters determined to defend Dundonald against Lisburn is that both Matthew [McElhinney] and I are actually from Lisburn.”