It has been a week for opera in various forms and I am just back from Sean Tyrrell's unique traditional opera setting of 'The Midnight Court' at the Frank Hayes' Island Music Club at the Highway Inn in Crusheen. I think this is one of the most successful one man shows I have seen, both entertaining and thought provoking. Based on the poem by Brian Merriman in a translation by David Marcus, it is an account of the age old battle of the sexes, told in bawdy verse form and set to music by Tyrrell himself in a trad' idiom. The show opened with the spoken word but was mostly related in song to mandola accompaniment. Although several hundred years old there were many resonances with modern day Ireland making it seem very current.
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| Sean Tyrrell in The Midnight Court |
One was immediately struck on entering the intimate space that is the backroom of The Highway Inn by the theatrical props of masks, hats and puppets and considerable care had gone in to dressing the windows in lights and crimson chiffon. The use of masks to portray the hag and Queen Aeval lent an air of Greek drama and the plot has some resonance with the battle of the sexes in Euripides' Lysistrata.
There was something of a festival atmosphere in the Highway Inn this evening as the GAA Crusheen Junior A team had won a match adding to the success of Crusheen GAA in recent weeks and the team were in to accept plaudits all adding to the general hurly burly of Saturday night. It was a shame that the venue was not packed to capacity as this show deserved to draw a larger audience.
