Diona Doherty on her new play Bridesmaids of NI, The Blame Game and the amazing people of Derry

The Derry native has featured in everything from adverts to films, drama to comedy and she is now making a name for herself in theatre. Bridesmaids of Northern Ireland was written by Diona in 2019 and will be coming to the Forum at the end of October. Diona spoke to the ‘Journal’ about the play, which she also stars in.

“I’m delighted it’s going to the Millennium Forum,” she said, “it’s such a big venue and such an important venue in Derry so I’m so excited that I’m able to bring this there. It’s the first show I’ve written by myself too, I’ve written a few other plays with my husband that were staged in the Waterfront with my husband but this is the first that I have written by myself so I’m so excited. I’m so honoured that the Forum are taking it for two nights too.

“I took inspiration from the movie Bridesmaids because the movie is class. I took inspiration in the sense that it’s about a bride in the lead up to her wedding and she’s got her old best friend from her childhood and she’s got her new best friend from work and they’re both at each others throats because they’re both riddled with jealousy over whose the best best friend. That’s the centre of it but it’s really wedged in Northern Irish humour and our identity and it’s got loads of localisms in it. The character I play is from Derry as well. It’s really rooted in our humour and our identity but it’s a real ‘full night out’ sort of show. There’s song and a bit of dancing, it’s very high energy. It’s just joke after joke and the type where you bring all your mates and go out for a drink after. It’s not just for gals either, it’s for guys as well!

Diona will be joined on stage by Belfast actress Kerri Quinn and Ballymoney born Jane Wisener. Diona explained, “Kerri Quinn, who we all know from Coronation Street and Hope Street - all the streets, just one of the most talented actresses that the North has ever produced, in my opinion. Not only is she a brilliant dramatic actress, but she is just naturally so funny. I’m so honoured that she signed on to this because she has TV knocking at her door.

“Jayne Wisener is also at the top of her game, she was in The Inbetweeners, Sweeney Todd, loads of TV and film as well. She’s also such a talent and so, so funny. You don’t see her as much in comedy roles but she’s naturally really funny. I can’t believe they were both so happy to sign on and be a part of the show so, I’m delighted. And I know them both really well - they’re both friends of mines. I didn’t write it with them in mind, I just wrote it, but when we sat down to think about who would be right for these parts, they were the first two we thought of and I was delighted they said yes.

“The three of us suit the roles so, so well. Jayne is playing the sort of new, posh best friend who’s a wee bit snotty and up herself and Jayne can play that so well. Kerri plays the Belfast bride who is working class and straight-up and I play this kooky best friend who comes from Derry and you cant trust her with anything - she couldn’t organise a party in a brewery but she’s expected to organise the engagement party and all this mad stuff.

“The three characters are a bride, a bridesmaid and a maid of honour and I’ve been all three - I’ve been a bride, I’ve been a bridesmaid and I’ve been a maid of honour. I know from each of those perspectives the drama in the lead up to a wedding or when someone’s supposed to organise a hen do and they completely mess it up and do something the bride hates. The hen do in this is set in a caravan when the bride thought she was going to Marbella.

“The fall outs that happen in the lead up to a wedding are all there but I’ve really rooted it in female friendship and the comradeship that, yes, we’re going to argue with each other but you better not talk about my friend because I’ve got her back. I think it’s all tied up nicely with a lovely ending where friendship prevails, although I like to think I’ve injected as much comedy into it as possible.

“I’m all for supporting local talent, that’s why it’s two girls from here that are in that show. We haven’t hired two big named actresses from other places to bring them over - we wanted it to be a show that was local. There’s a local writer, local director, local theatre company, all local. I want the local people to be behind that too and support it - support our humour too. Our comedy at the minute is soaring high. There’s so many brilliant writers and brilliant comedy actors and brilliant comedians coming from this country that we need to just keep pushing that and keep supporting it.

“I hope this is like the perfect show if it’s the lead up to your wedding and it’s like a pre-hen hen, or a post-hen hen if you need to build bridges again after everyone’s fallen out with each other! You just grab your group of mates and go to see this and I bet you’ll be sitting there going ‘sure wasn’t she going on like that on the hen!’ and things like that - you’ll be able to pick out the things that happened in the lead up to your wedding within the show.

Diona has been in show business for a long time now but where did it all start?

“I knew from a young age, and everyone around me knew, that I was a performer but I didn’t know what way yet. So, I dabbled in everything. I tried to be a presenter at one point, I tried to be a model, I tried to be a singer - I auditioned for RTÉ’s You’re a Star when I was about 16. I tried to do everything until I found acting. Through acting I found comedy and I met my husband, he’s a comedian too, and he encouraged me to try stand-up comedy. So, I think it was a real evolution. I didn’t just come out of the womb with jazz hands.

“I wasn’t one of those kids who was in a million shows growing up - I went to Thornhill and I think I had one line in Westside Story. I was one of the Jets and I think they gave me a line just to let me say something! I was never a main part. I did a show in the Millennium Forum - Guys and Dolls - in my teens as well and I was in the chorus of that too, I don’t think I even had a name!

“I went to Belfast then and started a Drama degree in Queens. From that, myself a few others started up a comedy troupe. We came to the conclusion that you had to make your own work so we started making sketches and performing them live and, through that, I started getting the odd audition for BBC local things and it grew from there. I was always really proactive, I was always banging on doors and emailing people, trying to get auditions and trying to get involved in as many things as possible in Belfast. So I wasn’t the sort of person that it all fell into my lap, I really pushed and pushed for years. There was a domino effect of one thing leads to another which leads to another. I got my first agent then in Belfast and that lead to progression then I suppose.

“I think it used to be much harder to be a woman in comedy but there is a bit more of an appetite now for funny females, I think we’ve got Derry Girls to thank for that. It’s a show that has really highlighted how funny the women of the north are in a really unapologetic and brilliantly grotesque way. We’re not trying to be prim and proper and we’re not trying to be ladylike - we are who we are and we are foul mouthed and quick-witted. All the women in my family are like that. So, I think that now is not only a brilliant time for comedy in the north, but a brilliant time for females from the north.

“I feel like I’ve been doing this for a thousand years, you know when you start to have a bit of success and people think the person has come out of nowhere? I don’t think anyone thinks that about me. They think that a thousand years ago she was doing the randomest videos. People sometimes mention a video I’ve done and it has like 20 hits on Youtube and I just wonder! Like, out of all the things I’ve done on TV you’re telling me about a really bad Youtube video?

“I feel that I never want to be pigeonholed so I do everything. I don’t think we should have to ‘stay in lane’ or stick to a certain thing. I do drama, I do comedy, I do stand-up comedy, I write and I do things in Irish, I’ve done a movie in Irish and I do adverts. I want to do it all and I don’t want someone to tell me that I have to stick to one thing.

“I think we’re in a position now where Derry is so proud of it’s people and of its exports but I don’t think it was like that when I was growing up. I remember people really giving Nadine Coyle a hard time because she was doing well. That’s not very nice. But no, I think there’s a whole shift in attitude around people who are doing well from Derry now, in whatever field, and I’m really happy to be a part of that. I’m really proud of the people and the artwork that comes out of Derry, especially things like Derry Girls, so I’m really proud to be a part of that whole movement.

Commenting on people moving out of Derry to pursue a career in entertainment, Diona said, “I think there’s always that attitude of ‘you’re only as big as the city you live in’ and when you live in a country that has a bigger city nearby, of course people feel like they need to leave to that city. I certainly felt like that and I never moved back to Derry. I think that Derry is the most amazing place, especially in this country, I think the people are the best. And if you move outside of Derry, everyone will tell you that too. If you go to Belfast or anywhere else in the North people will tell you how lovely the people of Derry are. I do think there are more opportunities in places outside of Derry - the BBC is in Belfast and that’s just down to logistics I suppose.

Diona starred in Soft Border Patrol on BBC NI, a show that explored what life in the north could be like post-Brexit.

Diona said, “Soft Border Patrol was awesome. It was so much work but so rewarding. It was entirely improvised. There was no script so that’s mental to walk into work and they tell you we’ll be filming for 8 hours and you’re just going to make it up. It’s a lot of work for a couple of weeks on end and you have no idea what makes the edit wither. You don’t know until you watch it. But I loved it, it was very timely with the whole Brexit situation and we basically covered everything. Every single bit of what could go wrong with the whole soft border/hard border, I think we covered it so it served it’s purpose for it’s time.

“I’m a permanent panellist now on the Blame Game now which is so exciting, that show has been running for 15 years and they have never changed the line-up until now. Obviously, Jake O’Kane was so great in it for so many years so I thought I had big boots to fill but the other guys have taken me in so well. I’ve been working with Tim McGarry for years on different things so he’s like my TV da now. I think we have some sort of an unwritten rule that he’s not allowed to write anything that I’m not in anymore! So I’ve absolutely loved being in it and I can’t wait to do more. It’s something that you really have to work at - you have to write so much material for it but it makes you quicker as a comedian but it’s brilliant fun.

So what’s next for Derry’s Diona? “I have quite a few things coming up, I’ve a few other plays that I’ve written that will be out in the next two years. There’s also a sequel coming for Bridesmaids and lots of other things but I can’t really talk about anything yet!”