John Arnold: An outdoor play in Inchydoney ... maybe they’ll let me sing!
I think it was Pontius Pilate long ago who said ‘Quod scripsi, scripsi’ (What I have written, I have written) in response to his critics who objected to his ‘sign’ stating ‘King of The Jews’ over the head of the crucified Christ.
You know, there are things I have committed to paper long ago that I’ve completely forgotten all about. You see people say, ‘John, you’ve a great memory’, but nothing could be further from the truth, I’ve a head like a sieve - in fairness, I compensate for that deficiency by constantly jotting down little notes.
These might be about people I’ve met, places I’ve been, but mainly stories given to me by so many people.
Last Saturday night at a concert, I was told there was a man ‘asking for you’ so at the break he was pointed out to me.
I had never in my life before met Eddie O’Grady but as we shook hands, it seemed as if we were old friends. A native of Aglish in west Waterford, he worked in East Cork for years.
Like myself, Eddie is ‘a GAA man’ and he said about 25 or 30 years ago I’d rang him looking to arrange a practise game for our minor hurling team. As it turned out, the game never did get played, but ever since he had read stuff I had written in The Echo and other papers.
The MC on Saturday night was none other than the Queen of Drama in Cork (and Waterford), the multi-All Ireland winning actress Mary Colbert. Mary’s husband is a cousin of mine, but that’s neither here nor there.
Conversing with Mary about travel, linguistics, global warming, theatre, and clover production, we both travelled back down the boreens and lanes of East Cork. We recalled local plays and concerts in the 1970s and ’80s -more innocent times but brilliant nevertheless.
The talk of theatres brought me to telling her the story of my singing in the Colosseum in Rome.
I’m no diva, soprano, baritone or tenor, but Lord, I do love to sing a few verses anywhere I can. Like last year when I was with a local parish on an Italian tour. We had a few days in Rome and visited all the ‘sights’ including the Colosseum.
Built around the year 72AD, it was used mainly for contests between gladiators, public events, and staged ‘battles’. Down the years, Caruso, Mario Lanza and Pavarotti sang there before huge audiences.
Our tour guide was lavishing praise on the acoustics of the venue and asked for someone of our group to stand on a certain spot and sing. I was ‘volunteered’ and without too much persuasion belted out The Fields Of Bartlemy and Santa Lucia in Irish.
Genteel applause followed but no cries of ‘encore, encore’!
That was my second time singing in an amphitheatre. The first was in December, 2012, in Lourdes in France. Not exactly in the town of Lourdes, but up, up high above the town, where Cite de St Pierre is situated –‘the Place of St Peter’ - but better known as The City of The Poor.
Francois Rodhain (1900-1971) was a French priest who devoted his life to providing accommodation in Lourdes for the poor, for students and for those pilgrims who wanted to be in Lourdes but in a secluded place.
In 1955, Mgr Rodhain purchased 50 acres of land on the high slopes above Lourdes. The following year the City of The Poor was opened. It has accommodation for several hundred, a huge dining room, thatched church and beautiful lakeside walks.
There also is The Cathedral of Greenery - an exquisite open-air amphitheatre built into a hillside. With seats for 2,500, it is used extensively for youth jamborees, seminars, Mass, and concerts.
When I was there that December, only a handful of maintenance staff duty were on duty. On a crisp, sunny afternoon I sang the Lourdes hymn in that gorgeous spot. My audience were a few ducks, goats with tinkling bells, and three donkeys in an enclosure - it was heavenly.
All going well, next Wednesday night I might well complete my singing three-in-a-row of amphitheatrical recitals! Not in France, Spain or Italy, but closer to home in West Cork.
In the month of October, the Kilmeen Drama Group are off on a tour of America. They have been there before - 11 years ago, with The Playboy Of The Western World. Kilmeen won three All Ireland Drama titles in a row and are one of the most successful amateur groups in the country.
In October, they head off Stateside with a production of Conor McPherson’s The Weir and at present they are on a ‘pre-tour’ tour - they’ll be in Bartlemy on October 17.
Next week, the group take on an ambitious project, staging the play in the unique Inchydoney amphitheatre. A play dealing with the riches of storytelling, set in a public house, and now being staged under God’s blue sky - wow!
With the azure sea as a backdrop and the beautiful grass and stone semi-circular arena as the theatre, it promises to be a stunning spectacle.
The show has a 7pm start on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and I’m hoping I might get a ‘slot’ to test my vocal ability under the West Cork sky!
Back in 2006, I played the part of Fr Daniel Prout in a stage show in Watergrasshill - the Tipperary-born Catholic priest ‘fell out’ with the Church authorities in the Diocese of Cashel and came to Cork in 1806. With me on stage for that production was Sean Ahern of Dungourney - the Uncrowned King of the Drama scene in Cork.
Sean will be a guest actor with Kilmeen on their American tour and also in Inchydoney next week.
Sean has starred in so many productions over the years – a colossus of amateur dramatics, he will certainly feel at home in the amazing amphitheatre in West Cork.
My ability as a ‘serious’ actor was stymied early on in my teenage years by my inability to ‘learn’ a script. Yerra, I’d know the general gist of what to say, but in a stage or competition play that’s not good enough!
Oh yes, I must tell Nora Scannell, the director, that my passport is in date and I can get a visa for America no bother – I actually have a visa card, just in case they need a sub on Broadway!
App?
