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Adrian Dunbar is directing a new production of "Carthaginians" by Frank McGuinness in Derry. It seems fitting as the play is set in Derry City Cemetery and deals with the aftermath of Bloody Sunday. When we spoke on Arts Extra this week, I asked him about the resonances of re-staging the play in 2012. It was premiered in 1988 and then the landscape for an inquiry, or even a Prime Minister's public apology, were years away.Ìý

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The characters in the play are sitting in Derry City Cemetery. For anyone who knows it, it'sÌýa vast graveyard, perched high on a hill, with panoramic views of the city. One of the best views in the city, pity say theÌýDerry wags that the residents don't appreciate it!

It also catches the wind in a way that only a high positioned place can, chilling visitors to the bone.

The men and women in the play are waiting for theÌýdead to rise, looking downÌýon the Bogside below, where, on the 30th January 1972, 13Ìýpeople were killed.ÌýThese peopleÌýare the survivors of that day andÌýthey want their story to be heard. It's 24 years since I first saw the play, when it premiered in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. I remember being shocked at hearing Derry accents on a Dublin stage. But I remember the visceral power of the words, the anger, the pain, and the need for closure.

It's the 40th anniversary year of Bloody Sunday, and the play is being produced to mark this. But so much has changed since McGuinness wrote it. I'm fascinated to see it, to hear those words again, but it will be odd to hear them in light of David Cameron's apology on behalf of the government.ÌýCan a play lose itsÌýimpact if history overtakes it?Ìý

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Carthaginians opens at the Millennium Forum in Derry next month.ÌýÌý