Over the Bridge

Over the Bridge

The stage play Over the Bridge, Thompson's best-known work, charts the tragic course of a sectarian dispute in the shipyard. Thompson offered the play to James Ellis, then director of the Ulster Group Theatre, early in 1958, reportedly saying "I got a play you wouldn't touch with a bargepole!" Ellis accepted it, and rehearsals had already started for a production in April 1959 when the theatre's board of directors headed by J. Ritchie McKee refused to produce the play, criticising it in the Belfast Telegraph as "full of grossly vicious phrases and situations which would undoubtedly offend and affront every section of the public" and stating "It is the policy of the directors of the Ulster Group Theatre to keep political and religious controversies off our stage." Ellis and many actors of the Ulster Group Theatre resigned to form their own company, and Thompson successfully sued the Board for breach of contract.