Archive News
Julian’s new play shines a light on economics – and humanity
Date Published: 11-Jul-2012
He has previously directed such memorable plays as Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce and Penelope for Druid Theatre. They both won Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival. So too did Trad, a comedy written by Mark Doherty, directed by Mikel, which premiered at the 2005 Galway Arts Festival.
Now Mikel Murfi is back in Galway, directing a new production for the Arts Festival. The Great Goat Bubble, by Julian Gough is a co-production between the Festival and Dublin’s Fishamble Company, which specialises in new plays.
The Great Goat Bubble is a story about the human condition, told in an unusual and gentle way, explains Mikel, who describes the piece as “gorgeously concise and lovely, and very subtle”.
In this short, humorous play, “Julian is able to teach us how world economics work”, says Mikel during a break from rehearsing the show in Druid Theatre.
The Great Goat Bubble has two characters, Somali economist Dr Ibrahim Bihi and young orphan, Jude who meet on the train platform at Ballinasloe in 1986, as a sleepy Ireland dreams of a modern future.
The two men, played by Wil Johnson and Ciaran O’Brien, begin a discussion about the world’s economy, and Dr Bihi tells Jude about a goat enterprise he started in his native land, as he explains how he made his first million. Mikel likens this tale to the biblical parable of the talents told by Jesus, in which people are encouraged to increase their money.
“Bihi is very seductive because he believes so much in this economic model,” explains Mikel, adding that the problem with Bihi’s model – like the failed model of the Western world – is that it requires everybody to be honest.
But, when “a small amount of movers and shakers at the top of every heap decide the worth of people lower down”, honesty doesn’t win out, says Mikel.
And because Jude is like “an idiot savant” he asks questions to Dr Bihi that shine a light on how world economics work. “Jude comes to things from a left-of-field way. His innocence is remarkable,” observes Mikel.
Dr Bihi’s answers are revealing. “The bogus nature of what economists do to us would nearly make you angry, except that it’s couched in a funny play,” says Mikel.
The Great Goat Bubble will have resonances for Irish people, the director feels.
“It’s not aggressive or barracking the audience,” he adds. “It’s a kind of meditative piece that helps you reflect on the truth, and not a major diatribe or a rally against the economists or banks or government.
“The characters are very rounded, but you almost don’t see the humanity arriving. It’s difficult to tell exactly where you get involved in the human stories behind the two guys.”
One man is preaching his theory of economics with a religious zeal; the other is an innocent abroad.
“But the audience realise they are almost like Jude,” says Mikel, pointing to the way the Irish public bought Eircom shares years ago after being advised to by the Government. Then, during the ‘boom years’ people received economic advice from all sides, much of which proved disastrous.
The play highlights the daft way the world economy works, adds Mikel, citing Ireland’s return to the bond markets last Thursday to borrow five million euro.
“That’s all about money that doesn’t exist – it’s theoretical money, he says. “There isn’t a room in Ireland with five billion in it and there never will be. And nobody will ever come looking for it.”
The Great Goat Bubble in its current incarnation was developed from a radio drama which Julian Gough wrote for the BBC. Before that again, he wrote it as a short story which appeared in the Financial Times.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
