PART 2 HOW IT IS - WORLD PREMIER GARE SAINT LAZARE CORK IRELAND

World Premier

GARE SAINT LAZARE IRELAND

HOW IT IS

( part 2 )

By Samuel Beckett

The Everyman Theatre

Cork

Final performance 7^th September

The tenor Mark Padmore appears in the quasi dark singing a lied by Schubert in German, Der Leierman from Winterreise. He strikes a wonderfully eerie presence, particularly in the context of the extraordinary surroundings that he finds himself in. He is standing in an orchestra pit among many incredible looking instruments, Javanese gamelan I later find out. The entire fantastical ensemble were specially commissioned by the Irish composer Mel Mercier who worked, among others, with the two giants of contemporary music and dance John Cage and Merce Cunningham. German lieder and Javanese gongs…This is a stunningly astute combination. So, already, within the very first few moments that the show is on, my attention is completely captured.

Wunderlicher Alter

Soll ich mit dir geten?

Willst zu meine Liedern

Deine Leier drehn?

Beckett was a huge fan of Schubert, it is well known that he sang the composer’s works accompanying himself often on the piano throughout his life, doing so right up till his death, I believe. That is an arresting image in itself, Beckett singing German lieder playing on the piano. Beckett’s knowledge and engagement with German culture has been well documented, he famously visited the country during 1936 when the Nazis were at the height of their power in pre-war Germany. After the war, he returned to the country many times, particularly to Berlin where his plays, performed and written in German, again by the author, to great critical acclaim.

Beckett and Java is an intriguing connection, the country is mentioned briefly in the Trilogy, though for the life of me I can’t recall exactly the context. I think it is mentioned in Molloy…Let me have a look and check…No, I can’t seem to find the damn thing. Head still cocked, no doubt, with the quartet of Brandy which I knocked back, directly after exiting the theatre last night. Though, on further reflection, I am reminded that Beckett is credited with playing the gong, yes, you are reading right, on the sleeve notes of the Cladagh Record recording of Jack MacGowran's readings of some of Beckett's prose writings, with further musical accompaniment offered by Edward Beckett, Beckett's nephew, who granted Gare Saint Lazare Players Ireland permission from the Beckett Estate to perform this production of the novel.   

A word too about The Everyman Theatre in Cork, as it is a beautiful old dear indeed. Gare Saint Lazare Ireland have been resident artists there since they kick started this truly epic and magnificent artistic adventure some years ago. I have been most fortunate now to have seen both productions, part 1 and now part 2 in this incredibly atmospheric hall, all balconies and plush curtains…When you are sitting in the Gods, as we were all doing last night, as the whole production was staged in the balcony area, you are truly with the Gods, or so we all were in the audience last night. Although, having said that, I did notice a few people holding their heads with both their hands. A hilarious spectacle, I can assure you. I also saw other people simply gaze into the orchestra pit with absolute bafflement and a kind of frozen horror mixed with sheer awe… not a bad range of emotions to have been provoked for the price of a theatre ticket, you might add.

As I told the Barman while I was watching him pour the snifters, he had been complaining about the amount of people who were moaning to him about the production, this was pure BECKETT. As Beckett would have wanted it to be. There was absolutely no mercy shown by either the Artistic Director Judy Hegarty Lovett, nor her partner in crime Conor Lovett who played alongside Stephen Dillane, both in the guise of narrators, both also all too unrealiable, insanely so. Of course, insanity was a life-long theme in Beckett’s prose. Starting off as early as 1934 when More Pricks than Kicks was published, continuing in Malone Dies when the inmates of an asylum take over and run amok in the 1950’s, right up to How It Is, published in the early 1960s, till his last publication in the late 1980s. Madness and Beckett always went hand in hand. Well, last night in The Everyman Theatre in Cork city, where both the Lovetts are from, the inmates did indeed take over the asylum again, and it was superlative Ladies and Gentlemen… Absolutely bloody superlative… I think, without any doubt, that it was the most powerful piece of theatre that I have ever seen. Incredible stuff. 

Strange old man,

Shall I go with you?

Will you turn your hurdy-gurdy

To my songs?

The choice of Schubert was particularly inspired, and says so much about the calibre of the group of individuals who were involved in the whole mammoth production. The hurdy gurdy is an instrument which suggests insanity, due to its incredibly obstinate and repetitious nature and of course the complete text of How It Is is also permeated in repeated acts and of course phrases which run right through the novels like codas. Repetition is what governs our lives, to the point, at times, of collective insanity. Last night was, thanks to all the people involved in this marvellous theatrical production, a gift from the GODS…as it was a purge from the normal repeated actions, of theatrical convention too!