I'll say, a strange man is a marvel, with his mighty talk; but what's
a squabble in your back-yard, and the blow of a loy, have taught me that
there's a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed.
When I was in high school, a few of us went to the local "art theatre" (= foreign films) in Denver to see Peter Sellers in
Heavens Above.
When we got there, we found that they had a sneak preview of
The Playboy of the Western World with Siobhan McKenna before the Peter Sellers.
My friends found it boring. As for me, after the first half hour it took before I could understand a word of the dialogue (
real Irish dialect, as opposed to movie dialect), I thought it was a lovely film, a lovely film.
So in college I checked out a recording from the library of Siobhan doing the play, and I taped it on my old Wollensack. Ah, for recordings of plays! I used to drift to sleep listening to them.
So I can hear Siobhan McKenna's voice clear as day:
Oh my grief,
I've lost him surely. I've lost the only Playboy of the Western World.
Quotes thanks to
Project Gutenberg, a wonderful resource for those of you who have not discovered it. All of classical literature at your fingertips.