Starting tomorrow.
The Power of Darkness at The Player’s Theatre, Trinity College.
Director Jonathan Shorthall writes:
“The Power of Darkness” is written by John McGahern, t he only play he has ever wrote and it has not been staged since 1991 in the Abbey.”
Of the plot, he sez:
“Peter King, a prominent landowner, is dying. His considerable wealth was earned by his hardness and shrewdness in breeding and training horses, but he lives in much the same way as the poor farmers that surround him. He has a 20-year-old daughter, Maggie, from his first marriage, and his second wife, Eileen, is half his age. He expects them to work like servants, and he does not allow his money to spread ease or to give them comfort in his twilight.”
“His illness forces him to take on a young workman, Paul, the son of poor farmers who owe him money. Paul has a history of living at home, doing casual labour and womanizing. He is a potent mixture of good looks, sexual egotism, weakness and vanity. His ruthless mother, Baby, is perfectly in tune with her circumstances. Her decent husband, Oliver, Paul’s father, is deeply religious but appears as slow-witted and ineffective as she is oily and worldly-wise. An old soldier, Paddy, who is fighting a losing battle with the drink, is lured into the drama and gradually he becomes its moral voice.”
Crikey.
Tickets from No Drama Theatre
Sounds uplifting…
+1
There’s a reason it hasn’t been performed since ’91. The play is gank.
Agreed. Saw it in 91. Horrible play.
Yer alright. Still rebuilding some sense of well-being since reading ‘Amongst Women’.
“That They May Face the Rising Sun” is a bit less grim, if you were inclined to give him another go, Hoop.
Perhaps I should, thanks. ‘Rising Sun’ in the title sounds hopeful.
You may be yanking my chain here, but that actually refers to the direction in which people are buried…
There’s also a bit of marital rape in there too iirc.
Less misery overall though…
I’ve saw it at no theatre in 2012.
Jaysus, No Drama still going?
At least Boards produced something of note
‘the only play he has ever wrote’. Is grammar no longer on the course in Trinity? Sweet jesus.