Synge's Holy Well

Holy well on Inis Mor

Synge's play "The Well of the Saints" is based on a story told to him on Inis mor about the holy well An Ceathrair Alainn, the Well of the Four Beautiful Persons. This well was known to cure blindness and epilepsy. Synge wrote down an old man's story:

A woman of Sligo had a son who was born blind, and one night she dreamed that she saw an island with a blessed well in it that could cure her son...Then she went out with the child and walked up to this well, and she kneeled down and began saying her prayers. Then she put her hand out for the water, and put it on his eyes, and the moment it touched him he called out: 'O mother, look at the pretty flowers!'

I wonder what Synge thought of this story. He was a staunch atheist, so I am inclined to believe he didn't go in for the story. But he had so many health problems, maybe he was attracted to the idea of a quick, magic fix.

Photo from DruidSynge's production of Well of the Saints

In the play, a blind husband and wife, Martin and Mary Doul (Doul means blind in Gaelic) go to the well to be cured of their blindness. They are both cured temporarily, but they realize that they are both very ugly - the townspeople had cruelly led them to believe they were the most beautiful people in Ireland. The play is a meditation on beauty (inner and outer), knowledge, and faith. It's one of my favorite Synge plays.

Last summer I visited this very well on Inis Mor, and performed the ritual of circling the well and placing the water on my eyes (I have a history of eye issues). The well water didn't cure me, and I wasn't expecting that it would, but I was curious about the ritual itself. Walking around the well was actually rather meditative, and I'd like to try it again this summer when I go.

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Synge Scorned

Wow. When Synge didn't like you, he REALLY didn't like you. Here's a poem he wrote after Molly Allgood's sister expressed her negative reaction to The Playboy of the Western World

The Curse

To a sister of an enemy of the author's who disapproved of 'The Playboy'

Lord, confound this surly sister,

Blight her brow with blotch and blister,

Cramp her larynx, lung, and liver,

In her guts a galling give her.

Let her live to earn her dinners

In Mountjoy with other sinners:

Lord, this judgment quickly bring,

And I'm your servant, J. M. Synge.

The earlier drafts of the poem went like this:

With corns and bunions cramp her toes

Deck with pimples brown and nose

Contort her liver lungs and brain

For all her parts receive a pain

Contrive for every inch

Till devils though she wake or sleep

Through her flesh with horror creep

Till her breakfast, supper, dinner.

And the poem was actually published in 1909! Probably after Synge's death, since he didn't want his poetry published at all, let alone during his lifetime. But he first sent this poem to Molly in a letter. He wrote:

I have written a lovely curse on the 'flighty' one but I'm half afraid to send it to you...

Yeah. Sending a poem to your girlfriend about how much you hate her sister. Good move, J.M.

You've a Fine Bit of Talk, Stranger

TRAMP

Come along with me now, lady of the house, and it's not my blather you'll be hearing only, but you'll be hearing the herons crying out over the black lakes, and you'll be hearing the grouse and the owls with them, and the larks and the big thrushes when the days are warm, and it's not from the like of them you'll be hearing a talk of getting old...and losing the hair off you, and the light of your eyes, but it's fine songs you'll be hearing when the sun goes up...

This is Synge's character the Tramp from his play In the Shadow of the Glen. The play is based off a tale that Synge recorded on the Aran Islands about an unfaithful wife who is caught in the act by her husband who was pretending to be dead in order to ambush her. In Synge's play, it's unclear whether the wife, Nora, has been unfaithful, but it's clear she has been terribly unhappy with her old, tyrannical husband, who she married for security, not for love.

Photo from Druid Synge Production

A wandering Tramp who had come upon the house in the glens of Wicklow earlier in the evening became embroiled in their conflict, and when Nora's husband kicks her out of the house, the Tramp invites her to go with him and live the life of a tramp (a wanderer). He assures her that a life lived free, in nature, will make her feel more youthful and happy than she's felt stuck in this isolated cottage.

It's clear to me that the Tramp is Synge - the man who wants to rescue a woman from her lonely life and bring her on a journey of love and adventure, and to share with her his adoration of the natural world.

NORA

You've a fine bit of talk, stranger, and it's with yourself I'll go.

Theatre Geekery Update

This is a very sleepy Emily signing in to say that I DID get through to the Druid Theatre box office at around 5:45am, after forty-five minutes of busy signals. Aaaand...the tickets had all been sold out, but I DID get on the waitlist at least, and am near the top of said waitlist. The woman I spoke to on the phone knew me from my Twitter page (haha! I love that. Cyber life, meet real life). She was very friendly and accommodating, and also said that since I'll be on the island that day anyway there's a good chance I'll get in to one of the performances even if I don't get off the waitlist.

Here's hoping!

And now, I'm going back to bed for a few more Zzzz's....

Theatre Geekery

I'm waking up at 5am on Monday (tomorrow) morning to make a long distance phone call to Ireland.

Why? you ask.

Because the Druid Theater company of Galway is putting on a production of Martin McDonagh's play The Cripple of Inishmaan.

ON Inishmaan. When I'M on Inishmaan!!!

Photo from Druid Theatre website of Cripple of Inishmaan production.

There are a limited number of tickets available for non-residents of the islands, and the box office opens at 10am on Monday.

Martin McDonagh's other plays include The Pillowman, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, A Behanding in Spokane, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and others. I'm a big fan of his dark humor.

I'm saying a prayer tonight to Manannan mac Lir god of the sea that I'm able to get a ticket.

Wish me luck!