Saturday was the last day of the Dublin Theatre Festival for me. This trip was only four days in Dublin with Sunday being an entire day of doing nothing but traveling home. We didn’t do that much on Wednesday so that makes just three days of shows or other activities. Normally I would not spend less than a week on an international trip because it is not worth the effort to spend only a few days abroad. I often only go on a vacation for a week. I only spent two weeks in Los Angeles because it is an immense city and two weeks in Italy when I explored two cities; Rome and Venice. I began the day with breakfast in the Garden Room eating the same meal as yesterday, French Toast.
The schedule began with a tour of the National Gallery. The tour was led by a young girl associated with the museum and not by the staff of the Irish Repertory Theatre. The tour guide was going to skip over The Taking of Christ (Caravaggio) but somebody insisted on seeing it. I asked the tour guide about George Russell (AE) but she did not think any of his work would be on display. George Russell did mystical paintings of the Sidhe, or Irish fairy people which he saw in visions. As far as I am concerned, the Sidhe are just the local manifestations of the unconscious mind (the spirits of the spirit world). Although they have no reality they are hidden aspects of the human spirit which are personified as mystical beings.
That only took an hour and instead of hanging around I walked back to the hotel. But before going there I had a bite to eat at the Caffè Nero next to Hugo’s Restaurant on Merrion Row. I had an Americano and a sandwich. At 1:00 p.m. we saw the show Guest Host Stranger Ghost at the Project Arts Centre. The Project Arts Centre is a performance space which hosts visual arts, theater, dance, music, and other types of performances. It was a bit more informal than a theater. This performance took place on the set of another show and ended rather abruptly with nobody taking a bow. There was some confusion as to when the performance began and when it ended. The play itself consisted of various humorous interactions between various characters. The only thing that stood out was unsubscribing from emails on the phone. It was described as “A story about living in someone else’s home, performed on the sets of other people’s plays. A mismatched trio rent a house owned by an elderly woman now living her last days in a nursing home. Unlikely housemates, they try to find a connection in the short time they’re here – and a space for themselves amongst the stuff of her entire life.” I think this is a strange idea for a play, acceptable as a slice of life, but without any real point.
On the walk back to the hotel I encountered a protest in support of Palestine which caused a bit of a traffic jam but fortunately I was on foot. I posted a few messages on WhatsApp to warn the others about this obstacle.
There was a very long break before the final show of the trip. I walked to the Royal Hibernian Academy which is not far from the motel. I think it was student art work on display but I am not a snob and I thought most of the art work was excellent or at least interesting. I took a few photos but only with my phone which seems more discrete. At this time, my only serious artistic endeavor is generative art so technically this was more pertinent to my interests. I saw an art deco clock which I might take a design from. After seeing everything at the museum, I had dinner at Matt the Thresher again. This time I ordered the prawn linguine which made for a heavy meal. It was excellent. Somebody was playing the piano while I ate which was classy.
The very last show I saw was Grania at the Abbey Theatre. The show began at 7:30 p.m. but Anna thought it began at 8:00 p.m. so we had to scramble to get to the theater. I took a taxi by myself. Then I found my seat was double booked, somebody was already seated there, so I had to find another seat. Grania was written by Lady Gregory, the major patron of Yeats for a very long time. She is one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre but this is the first time one of her plays has been done in decades. The play did feature some nudity. I think Anna was going to warn the group about that but she didn’t have time to do so as we were very late. Of course, I did not mind the brief nudity. Although I was not seated close to the stage, I still enjoyed the play which I found a bit moving. I did not find the story as moving as the shear significance of the story in Irish culture. Grania is a figure from ancient Irish myth. William Butler Yeats also wrote a play based on her story, Diarmuid and Grania. I tend to get Grania and Deirdre mixed up because the stories are similar. By reading the two volume biography of Yeats I knew a lot about Lady Gregory and her role in the Irish Literary Revival. I noticed a portrait of George Russell (AE) in the lobby even though he only had a small role in the early history of the theater.
I was sad that this magical trip came to an end. I have to return to my humdrum life. But of course that is not quite true because I am a most profound dreamer. I am quite familiar with the heights of the human spirit and I do not need to be shown its expression. Of course, I would turn to the theater for inspiration at every chance that comes my way, but I am fortunate in that I don’t suffer from a desperate need for theater. Maybe the theater has a desperate need for what I have to offer but I fear this will never come about. I am under a powerful spell of my own devising, an enchantment of pure genius. It takes very little to inspire me. It could be said that I am addicted to inspiration, but I’ve never heard anyone make such a claim.
