The Irish Studies Program at Fairfield University will celebrate the fifth anniversary of its Irish in Film Series with six free screenings of plays by acclaimed Anglo-Irish playwright John Millington Synge. The films are all live, stage productions directed by Gary Hynes of the Druid Theatre Company, Galway, Ireland.
The film series is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
All films, produced in Dublin in 2007, will be screened in the DiMenna-Nyselius Library multimedia room on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., except the first film, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. The film series is part of Fairfield's Arts & Minds season of cultural and intellectual programming.
On Wednesday, March 7, at 7:00 p.m., two one-act plays will be offered: "Riders to the Sea," introduced by Prof. Marion White, who teaches in the Irish Studies Program; and "The Tinker's Wedding," introduced by William Abbott, D.Phil., associate professor of history.
"The Riders to the Sea" (1904) is set on Inishmore and is an accurate portrayal of Aran Island peasant life. The play is epic in its theme of man against the powerful forces of nature. Marie Mullen takes on the leading role of Maurya, who has lost all the men in her life to drowning.
"The Tinker's Wedding" (1907) is a controversial comedy with an anti-clerical theme in which a uncharitable parish priest (Eamon Morrissey) disgraces his collar by sitting down by the roadside and drinking with a tinker woman Mary Byrne (Marie Mullen). Synge appreciated the wildness and humor of the tinkers and their wish to live unsettled lives.
For more information, contact Marion White, Irish Studies Program, at (203) 254-4000, ext. 3021 or mwhite@fairfield.edu.