Centenary Envy

Last night, the Druid Theatre of Galway commemorated the centenary of J.M. Synge’s death (March 24th, 1909) during the Galway Arts Festival with a series of readings of works from his prose, poetry and plays. Participants in the evening, among others, were Denis Conway from the Walworth Farce, Garry Hynes, Druid's artistic director, and Aaron Monaghan whom we recently saw in The Cripple of Inishmaan. Yes, I have centenary envy.

Here in New York, that treasure of a theatre,  The Pearl, in its new home, will begin its season with Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. Playboy will be followed by G. B. Shaw's Misalliance. An embarrassment of riches this autumn in the Irish theatre, pearls and all.

A Parting Glass of Guinness While Mulling Whether Life is Worth Living....

Let's discuss an Irish writer who made his mark through "grim Irish realism." No, not Mr. McCourt. Although he certainly put grim Limerick realism on the Pulitzer grid. And we do owe a timely Guinness or 4 in honor of Mr. McCourt's literary and personal success. He and his wife Ellen were an unfailing supporter of the Irish Arts in NYC, and he will be missed.

No, "grim Irish realism" was actually the accusation thrown at Lennox Robinson's work. "Cork realist" was the designation forced upon him. And Robinson tried to resist, thinking his work much more than such definitions. There was realism in his writing, yes, but there was also comedy, tragedy and most of all, material that "can be found at one's own fireside."

An early favorite of W.B. Yeats, and a consistent figure in the Abbey Theatre, Robinson is not well-known here in the U.S. He died broke and drunk in 1958. It could be the grimmest of Irish stories except that Lennox Robinson left a substantial legacy of work. He wrote over 30 plays, and that was only part of his output.

The excellent Mint Theatre is excavating his Is Life Worth Living? for production in August because that is what they do. Dig up neglected art. And that too is worth a parting glass.

More on this soon but does anyone want to share a Frank McCourt story? because I'm sure you don't want to hear mine.

Or so say the bards....

From Admission, Jean Hanff Korelitz's otherwise decidedly non-celtic new novel:

Hungry Grass: "Wherever someone died in the Irish famine, if you walk over that spot, over the earth where they died, you feel weakness and hunger. Or so say the bards."

Never knew they, the bards, said this.

Things are quiet here in NYC as they usually are in mid-July. However, there has been an announcement as to the return of The Cambria by the Irish Arts Center in September for four weeks. It is slated for rotation with Frederick Douglass Now, a one-man show written and performed by Roger Guenveur Smith (Do the Right Thing, American Gangster). The Cambria is Irish writer/performer Donal O’Kelly’s play about Frederick Douglass’s historic trip to Ireland, where he was greeted as a hero by the Irish people. The Cambria features Donal O’Kelly and Sorcha Fox, with lighting by Ronan Fingleton and direction by Raymond Keane.

Mr. O'Kelly's theatrical and historical histrionics are not my cupan tae, but the subject matter is certainly worthwhile.