10 Questions About…

On Saturday night, we saw our friend Gary Murphy in a play at the Project Art Center – Off Plan. Off plan is an adaption of the Oresteia, a trilogy of plays about the fall of House of Atreus. I’m debating whether I try to give a Readers Digest version of the story. I guess I’ll tell what I need to – but leave the whole story at Wikipedia for those interested…

Agamemnon returns home to Clytemnestra after 10 years away at war. He is the victor, but to appease the gods he slaughtered his own daughter while out. So the wife is not so happy to see him. She’s so not happy she kills him. Cassandra is with him. You may recall Cassandra was the fortune teller whose curse was that no one believed or maybe understood her warnings until it was too late.

The play uses a lot of mixed media. The scene with Cassandra is very high tech. She seems to be very tied in with all of the technology as if she’s using the technology to speak. The stage was set where we could see half of the action as a play and half of the action we seen via video as it happened in a suburban house set on the stage. While she rules the technology we can see the filmed murder of Agamemnon.

Gary’s role is quite different from the others. He’s like the slick land developer. Most of the time he speaks, it’s in sound bites into a mini-video-camera. While the play is promoted as tying into modern Ireland and the recent fall of house of the developers, I think Gary’s character is the main tenet of that perspective. Gary is great with his dry lines – very funny at times. I thought his character was particularly effective.

The rest of the characters seem to have kept one leg in the days of Greek tragedy and a leg in a more modern time. The story goes on where Agamemnon’s son Orestes comes back and at the urging of the daughter who was left behind kills the mother and Gary’s character, the mother’s husband.

I also enjoyed the interaction between the sister (Electra) and brother (Orestes). The sister is brutal. She has been left behind to develop a real hate for the mother. The brother was sent away as is less invested in the mother’s demise. The difference in their accents is particularly effective, something that doesn’t work as well in the US. There’s a very funny but creepy scene between Orestes and his mother before she recognizes who he is.

We’ve had a houseguest for a couple of weeks. She and I spent an midweek afternoon doing some sightseeing. I took some quick pictures. I took a picture of the statue of Justice at Dublin Castle. The irony of the statue is that Justice is looking in, not looking out. After Dublin Castle we went to Christchurch. The nice thing is that we got there just as they were closing so they let us sneak in for a quick peek. I took one picture from the crypt underneath the church. It’s a picture of a petrified cat and mouse. They were found in the old organ pipes. Creepy, but cool! Also I took a picture of St Anne at Christchurch. If you squint I think it looks a lot like me.

Our friend Lisa has come for a visit. Lisa, really from Colorado) is a nanny in Cork but she is visiting for a week. On Saturday the girls and I went into town with Lisa. We went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. The Book of Kells is a beautifully illuminated copy of the four gospels. It was transcribed by Irish monks around 800 AD.

I have to say that the detail is amazing. There are some pages that are all illustration and they’re beautiful – but my favorite part is the first letters and mini pictures drawn right into the text. You can see how so much of Celtic art and design stays true to the design in the Book of Kells.

An interesting thing the exhibit pointed out was design through the ages, they showed drawings that were precursors to the Book of Kells and drawings that came after and you could see the main themes that survived.

The Book of Kells is housed in the Trinity’s Long Library, quite frankly that is as impressive as the books. I’ve added some pictures. The room is filled with old books. The girls couldn’t believe that people would have ever gone through the books. Also we got to see many pictures and the Proclamation from the 1916 Easter Rising. One item I liked was a postcard from a girl at Trinity at the time. She had written home to say that while the rumors of the rebellion was true that she was safe in her dorm. Kind of helped you imagine the general reaction and environment for the Easter Rising.

After Trinity we ended up at lunch at Bewley’s. Then we walked around. Then we ended up at the National Gallery of Photography where we saw more pictures, not from the 1916 rising but rebellion efforts from 1921-22. While there we saw notice of the free films at the Irish Film Institute. My friend Sheila had clued me into the day of free films, but not being a movie fan I completely forgot about it.

Anyways most of the films were booked out but we got to see 3 old and very cheesy Irish tourism films. One was in black and white. All include shots of Nelson’s Pillar, which was destroyed by a bomb in 1966 and replaced by The Spite in 2003. (Careful readers will remember that we saw the head from Nelson’s Pillar at the Pearse Street Library.)

It was fun to see the refurnished cinemas.

At night Patrick, Lisa and I headed to the local pub.

We still don’t have all of the girls’ uniforms – but I thought I’d add a quick snap of what we have. This is how they leave for school most mornings.

We went to see a play Wednesday night. The play that I wanted to see was sold out. So we went to see Faith Healer by Brian Friel – again. We saw it about six weeks ago at the Guthrie with Joe Dowling as Frank – the Faith Healer. It was interesting to see the difference in the show and in the reaction of an American versus Irish audience.

There is one character named Teddy, the cockney agent (of sorts) for the faith healer. It was interesting to see how alike the portrayals of the character were. He is in many respects the comic relief is a very dark show. Fun to see how much of the comedy must have been written into the script (which I would have read years ago but of course forgot those kinds of details).

On Thursday I went to book club at Hughes and Hughes. It was fun but here’s a glimpse of our life here you don’t always see, I had to wait 20 minutes for the bus in the pouring rain and cold wind. I had an umbrella – a real sign of how bad it was – but even with the umbrella my legs got soaking wet.

Aine wanted to send a message to her class back home: