Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Sunday, 27 March 2016

This Easter, 100 years after

the "Easter Rising" (in late April)
by Irish terrorists/fanatics/patriots
mainly in Dublin, the BBC broadcast - not O'Casey's
"The Plough and the Stars" -
but Beckett's wonderful
"All that Fall", his only play for radio.

It is not difficult to see Maddy Rooney (the principal character)
as Mother Ireland (the deliberate opposite of Britannia)
and her blind husband Dan as an Irish civil servant
working for Dublin Castle.
This, to me, is one of the greatest plays of all time
(and Beckett's best), to match Chekhov
and even Euripides.

The original, marvellous 1957 BBC production,
overseen by Beckett himself, can be listened to on youTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY22jmHAS5E


No comments: