Two Irish Plays
Sep. 7th, 2005 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_elyanI spent bits of today reading one of my favourite plays, "the Weir" by Conor McPherson. I don't normally read plays - I much prefer to see them acted, or at least listen to them. Unfortunately, in this case I have no choice, because I used to have it on tape, but I lent it to someone at college, and the bastard never gave me it back.
There are two modern Irish plays I absolutely adore - "The Weir", and "Our Lady of Sligo" (by Sebastian barry). I have seen the Weir onstage, but have Our Lady of Sligo on tape (and with the fabulous Fiona Shaw in the central role).
The two plays are quite different, but equally moving. Our Lady of Sligo is a play about being alone, about failure to communicate, from the collapse of a family to the isolation of De Valera's Ireland of the 1950's (when the play is set). None of the characters can connect with one another - as death draws them even farther apart, the husband of the dying central character finds his resolution in a graveyard (an extraordinarily moving speech), while the daughter rages and blows at her infuriating mother. It is a play of long speeches, and slow build, but once it enfolds you, it is enchanting.
The Weir, by contrast, is a play about community, although it has only five characters. It is about the company of men, the strengths and weaknesses of the family, and above all it is about stories, which began and remain one of the strongest forces that bind people together. The stories begin as ghost stories, but slip into the realm of human tragedy, and the comfort of strangers. Even the "cussed old bollix" Jack's last speech, of the girl he should have married, shows that the simplest acts bind us together - and above all, in the telling of stories, five people in a lonely pub on the hills of Sligo find some sense of community amongst themselves.
Both plays are wonderful, and if you ever get the chance to see either, go for it. And if any of you by some miracle have the 1998 Radio 3 production of The Weir, could you please do me a copy?
There are two modern Irish plays I absolutely adore - "The Weir", and "Our Lady of Sligo" (by Sebastian barry). I have seen the Weir onstage, but have Our Lady of Sligo on tape (and with the fabulous Fiona Shaw in the central role).
The two plays are quite different, but equally moving. Our Lady of Sligo is a play about being alone, about failure to communicate, from the collapse of a family to the isolation of De Valera's Ireland of the 1950's (when the play is set). None of the characters can connect with one another - as death draws them even farther apart, the husband of the dying central character finds his resolution in a graveyard (an extraordinarily moving speech), while the daughter rages and blows at her infuriating mother. It is a play of long speeches, and slow build, but once it enfolds you, it is enchanting.
The Weir, by contrast, is a play about community, although it has only five characters. It is about the company of men, the strengths and weaknesses of the family, and above all it is about stories, which began and remain one of the strongest forces that bind people together. The stories begin as ghost stories, but slip into the realm of human tragedy, and the comfort of strangers. Even the "cussed old bollix" Jack's last speech, of the girl he should have married, shows that the simplest acts bind us together - and above all, in the telling of stories, five people in a lonely pub on the hills of Sligo find some sense of community amongst themselves.
Both plays are wonderful, and if you ever get the chance to see either, go for it. And if any of you by some miracle have the 1998 Radio 3 production of The Weir, could you please do me a copy?
