Women of Ireland

As it is Saint Patrick's Day Soon and I think we should get in the mood to celebrate, I am sharing tonight the beautiful and haunting song Women of Ireland, which I discovered thanks to Barry Lyndon. I get shivers every single time I listen to it.

Fame or Shame (and Barry Lyndon)

I found via Facebook this quiz created in the honour of Barry Lyndon, one of Stanley Kubrick's masterpieces, which is apparently back in cinema. The quiz is called Fame or Shame: how would you fare as an 18th century adventurer? Apparently, I would be a Drifter: "An opportunist and optimist, you're always looking for ways to improve yourself and don't mind taking a few shortcuts on the way. When fate knocks you down you get back up again, certain you'll reach the top in the end."If you have seen the movie, you know I would on the long run end up in a better position than Redmond Barry. It is a pretty accurate description of what I would be, albeit don't think I am an optimistic. In any case, it made me want to watch the movie again.

Trivia about Samuel Beckett and Patrick Magee

I once mentioned here that I wrote an essay when I was an undergraduate about Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett. I still think to this day that it was my best undergraduate paper. For the same course, on XXth century theater, I had made a brilliant oral presentation about the same play... Now where am I going with this? I will not praise myself overtly: I mentioned these pieces of work because a lot of what I did at that time was pretty rubbish. But also because, reading about the play, I (re)discovered that it was first performed by Patrick Magee in the role. The title role and the only role of the play. in fact, Beckett wrote the part especially for him. Patrick Magee also played in Barry Lydon and of course in A Clockwork Orange. I wonder if my sensibilities played some role into choosing to study this play in particular, since Magee played in one of my favorite movies, based on one of my favorite novels at the time. The teacher had said it was a difficult choice, I had read little Beckett before, yet I felt like a fish in the water reading it. I often regret not doing further studies on Beckett, or performing in one of his plays. I read Krapp's Last Tape eagerly, but never saw it on stage, although I did caught the second half of an adaptation on the BBC once. I know I can find the original performance on YouTube. Goodie.