Weekend

Saturday night, and a play to contradict Thomas’ theory (though he hotly denies it) – MIMIC, an extraordinary monologue (quite unlike anything I’ve seen apart from perhaps the Wooster group) that was also a Condition of Ireland play – an account (underscored by piano) of a stand-up comedian famed for his mimicry returning to the homeland he has abandoned years before – a play about a man who doesn’t know who he is returning to a country – a new Ireland – that doesn’t know what it is, or what ‘accent’ to speak in. Not always coherent – or quite sane – but intermittently compelling...

Sunday gave me a chance to observe some Druid New Writing activity – first read-through of a new play to be given a rehearsed reading on Monday afternoon. Another tale of trappedness, but – a relief for me – this time not in a small Irish town, but in the post-Soviet provinces. The writer is a Russian woman resident in Ireland for 7 years. The tang of the unfamiliar was bracing; also the opportunity to see an Irish director and actors at work (although I have observed this before, having had a play on in Cork in 2002).

Interesting digression about geography. In Ireland you go ‘up’ to Dublin, wherever you’re coming from. In Britain we seem to obey the points of the compass, going down to London from John O Groats and up to it from Cornwall. In Russia, apparently, there is no equivalent. Many Russians never visit Moscow in their lifetimes...

Evening ends with spectacular Festival parade – a European-influenced piece of street theatre with giant puppets, masks and a demonic circus. Excellent.