On three Irish plays in the new year
These are three entries (and some comments) from a review of more by The Irish Times:
“Walking with Ghosts
Gaiety Theatre – January 27th-February 6th, 2022, gaietytheatre.ie
World premiere of this adaptation of Gabriel Byrne’s best-selling memoir of the same name, directed by Emmy award-winning director Lonny Price. Moving between sensual recollection of childhood in a now almost vanished Ireland and a commentary on stardom in Hollywood and on Broadway, Byrne returns to his home town to reflect on a life’s journey.”
Byrne is one of my favorite actors in that he can do drama, comedy, and action well. One of my most distinct memories of a film is him playing someone involved in the mafia in Miller’s Crossing (1990) and taking an opponent to the woods. When compelled by the opponent to “have a heart” and show mercy, he says, “What heart?” and kills with his pistol.
“An Evening With Reggie
Everyman, Cork – March 31st-April 16th, 2022, everymancork.com
You may not have heard of the journalist and writer Pat Fitzpatrick, but if you are from Cork you will most certainly have heard of his alter ego, Reggie from Blackrock Road, a millionaire with an acid tongue ready to burn anyone who doesn’t meet his standards. What began as a satirical online column is being shaped into a play with the assistance of director Pat Kiernan. Some of Reggie’s humour is local, but many of Reggie’s targets are not. Not the worst way to spend an evening, Reggie himself might say.”
I have not read Fitzpatrick’s work, but the summary reminds me of a brief U.S. series of TV shows about a decade ago I saw a few episodes of and thought were funny. It was called Running Wilde about an aristocrat who doesn’t really have to work and has a wicked tongue. The literary critic Declan Kiberd noted that in Ireland the very wealthy considered it mundane and somewhat shameful to have a formal job. At a grad school, end-of-year party, a classmate said of another student who said online he couldn’t make it because he needed to work, “You’d admit that?”
“Endgame
Gate Theatre, Dublin – February 11-March 26, 2022, gatetheatre.ie
Samuel Beckett gets the celebrity treatment in this highly anticipated production of Endgame, which stars controversial comedian Frankie Boyle, making his stage debut as the hot-tempered Hamm, and Robert Sheehan as his lackey Clov. Seán McGinley and Gina Moxley join the duo as the dustbin-stuck Nag and Nell, under the direction of Broadway director Danya Taylor.”
I think this was one of Beckett’s more difficult works, but some find all of his writing weird. The setting is claustrophobic and somewhat apocalyptic, but it has a certain amount of humor, like the comments, “What do you think of the life to come?” followed by an interlocutor’s answer, “Mine was always that.”