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A WEEK IN DUBLIN (February 20-26,1961) DURING MY FIRST WEEK IN IRELAND, I have been overwhelmed by the magnificent vitality of current dramatic production that I have seen in Dublin as well as read about in numerous periodical accounts concerning county festivals going on all over the island. I find little evidence , at least in the dramatic medium, of the paralysis that crippled Joyce's Dubliners.Rather there is everywhere apparent the spiritual regeneration he envisioned as potential, especially in his "two-sighted" story "The Dead." Remarkably, my introduction to Irish theater was Tennessee Williams ' new play, You Touched Me, presented by the Gas Company Players of Dun Laoghaire, a suburban theatrical society of surprising ability. Dc nald Windham's re-vamping of this American drama to suit Britisl audiences was stirringly acted by these "professional" amateurs. Next cal e a rare treat: Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken at the Gate. A dedicatE 1 cast assembled from Brazil, Canada, the United States, England, a ld Ireland gave this "world premiere" of a new translation from the Norwegian by Michael Meyer1 an inspired performance. Set in the remote Himalayas to create the sense of timelessness and universality the translator deemed necessary, Ibsen's last work was effectively stag0d as an Indian play. A new McMaster (Rubek) stepped forward to read from Richard Ellman's James Joyce, as epilogue, the high tribute the young Joyce once ascribed to his acknowledged master, ranking him above Shakespeare. Forced to choose on the following evening between another "offBroadway " production-this time T.S. Eliot's The Confidential Clerk at the Irish Academy of Arts-and the new satire at the Abbey, I selected (wisely, according to reviews) the Abbey's portrayal of a "first," The Evidence I Shall Give by Richard Johnson, a district judge. In the proceedings of a single day at court, a fascinating cross section of Irish life today was admirably performed before a delighted audience, who adeptly caught much more of the idiom and innuendo than I, the newcomer . My orientation to modern Ireland was considerably advanced the next night by the new-and first-alI-Irish musical at the Olympia, Glory Be, of which Dublin's entire populace seems justly proud. Starring as a Dublin jarvey, Milo O'Shea cleverly introduces eight re1 . Reviewed in the current issue of Modem Drama. 164 1961 A WEEK IN Dum.IN 165 vealing "pictures" of the city. While following the usual story-line of ooy(s) meets girl(s)," each includes frequent suggestions of such present-day problems as the compulsory study of Gaelic in the schools, the ever-threatening city bus strikes, the return of the Lane pictures, the emigration of the young Irish, the scandalous antics of Brendan Behan, and censorship. Thoroughly charming musically and filled to the brim with wit and wisdom, it combines the costuming of Clodagh and Vera Hennessy, the choreography of Patricia Ryan, the decor of Joseph Hone, the book and lyrics of Fergus Linehan, and the score of Aideen Kinlen and Paddy Murray, under the direction of Radio Eireann's top producer, Michael Garvey, in a sure-fire package that will, conceivably, beco~e a universal favorite in time comparable to Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, and South Pacific'At the Gaiety on Saturday afternoon, I was enraptured by a superb one-man show, MicheaI MacLiammoir's The Importance of Being Oscar, soon to open in New York. Inspired interpolation supplies the continuity for a graceful and skilled reading of excerpts from the works of Oscar Wilde. A tour de fors originally designed for the 1960 Dublin International Theatre Festival, it will, undoubtedly, win much approbation abroad. But the crowning glory, dramatically, of my first week in Dublin was the panel discussion at the Shellbourne Hotel Sunday evening sponsored by the National Cerebral Palsy Foundation on the theme "Modem or Begorrah (Whither Irish Theatre)," the panelists being the two most talked-about Irish playwrights of today, Brendan Behan and John B. Keane (Sive), in addition to Ray MacAnally, the highly respected Abbey actor. Seamus Kelley moderated this battle of the wits before what the Irish Times described as "a capacity audience" for "an unusual...

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