The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
SCARIFF GAA Hall will be the venue for a dramatic ‘court’ case on Saturday night, November 19. The newly refurbished and extended hall will host Gerard Howard performing Brian Merriman’s The Midnight Court in an exciting one-man show, directed by Paul Brennan. Written around 1780, Brian Merriman’s comic poem is set on the shores of Lough Graney. A classic of early modern Irish poetry, its themes include sex, gender roles and the manifestation of a God. In The Midnight Court, the bachelor poet Merriman is put on trial for the crime of never getting married. The women of Ireland have him up before a court in Feakle, presided over by the Goddess Aoibheal, who demands him to account for this outrageous oversight. Gerard Howard, a Clare native will switch roles from Merriman to maiden, from old codger to goddess, from harridan to 18-foot tall bailiff, exposing the shortcomings of the men of Ireland. Not even the clergy escape Merriman’s scabrous …
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