Richard Dormer’s revived one-man homage to the late snooker icon Alex Higgins reflects the deep bonds between sport and the theatre

T
he last time Richard Dormer saw Alex Higgins, the scene could not have been
more dramatic. The writer and actor was leaving Belfast’s Grand Opera House
in a taxi after the final performance of his one-man show, Hurricane, in
2005, when he spotted the snooker player on his own, outside the building,
watching staff remove the play’s banner. Dormer tapped on the window and
Higgins looked up from beneath his trademark fedora, took a theatrical bow
and began waltzing in the rain. Dormer looked back as his taxi pulled away
up Great Victoria Street. Higgins was still dancing as the banner unfurled
behind him.

At the time, Dormer could not think of a better curtain call for Hurricane,
which went from inauspicious beginnings at Belfast’s Old Museum arts centre
to London’s West End and off Broadway. However, after Higgins was found dead
in his Belfast flat last July, aged 61,