Edna O'Brien introduces her own stage adaptation of her classic novel The Country Girls, produced by the Abbey Theatre and currently touring nationwide.
'The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.'
I doubt that I heard those words as a young girl in County Clare. My only smattering of Shakespeare was from King Lear regarding the serpent-like tooth of the thankless child. But twice a year, travelling players came to the town and the town hall, lit by paraffin oil lamps, became a positive Mecca.
We were immersed in the weeping and gnashing of East Lynne, the indulgent savageries of Dracula and the grizzly activities in Murder in the Old Red Barn. They were riveting. Girls and women cried and grown men shaken. Walking home under the stars, having been hauled to the height of Parnassus, we thought of nothing else, we talked of nothing else and in my wayward self I resolved to join the travelling company, go off with them on their lorries and be part of their bohemian experience.
That was my introduction to theatre. Previously I had heard of Anew McMaster, who did spout Shakespeare in various venues, his passion so extreme that his co-actors on stage fainted, which irked him to the point of shouting at them to get up and let him get on with his acting. I loved books (the few I had access to) but theatre stimulated me more.
Every moment was, or seemed to be, realised on stage, the scrape of Dracula's safety pin across a heroine's throat, the sodden handkerchief of the unfaithful mother in East Lynne and the whole gamut of conflicting emotions. I later came to England and saw plays at The Royal Court and particularly admired Roots, The Entertainer and The Caretaker.
Above all else, how indelibly I remember Patrick Magee and Stephen Rea in Endgame - theatre at its most dangerous and most thrilling.
Watch: Edna O'Brien talks to Sinead Crowley
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Playwriting differs from fiction writing, as it comes from a different part of the imagination. All novelists dream of writing plays, deeming it easier, except that it isn’t! It is usually a shorter time span, but the pitfalls are many.
This is where the playwright needs to work intensely with the director, since both seek the same vision, but are not always in agreement.
They can and do challenge each other, which is not the same as being in conflict, or in rivalry. I was lucky to be led to Graham McLaren, whose empathy with the work was flawless, but who was astute enough to dispose of all the novelistic touches and remind me that drama, is drama, is drama.
More than with any other art form, theatre is a collective experience, and what Graham and I and the entire company aspire to is that the magic we are in search of will materialise.
The Country Girls is touring nationwide until May 4th. - find out more here.
