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Seán Tyrrell
The Midnight Court
About The Poem
Dervala writes:
The Midnight
Court was written in 1780, but the complaints seem fresh
to some Irish women today.
Lady of Craiglea, you must assess
The extent of Irish women’s distress,
How, if the men continue with their ways,
Alas, women will have to make the plays
By the time the men are disposed to wed
They’re no longer worth our while to bed
And it’ll be no fun to lie below
Those old men who are so weak and slow.
Brian Merriman, wrote Cúirt
an Mhean Oíche, or The Midnight Court. His
poem describes a dream in which he is dragged to a trial where
women of Ireland accuse the men of general foot-dragging and lame
bedroom performance. Irish men aren’t
worthy of their spirited womenfolk, they say. The population is
falling. Tight-buttocked, cutie priests are unavailable, and maidens
wither while single men dither. A young
woman addresses the court, blasting men for waiting to marry until
they are past being able to satisfy women in bed. She proposes,
among other things, that priests should marry, and destroys the
shriveled old man who defends men by abusing her. Aoibheall, judge
and fairy queen, delivers a verdict against the men just as Merriman,
in terror, wakes up."
It is splendid stuff, rich and earthy and full of detail.
Diarmuid Breathnach writes:
As
well as its literary worth, The Midnight Court is full
of information about spells, folklore and 18th century rural life
as well as matters revolving around marriage, sex, population, women’s
rights, births outside marriage [and] clerical celibacy.
Noel Fahy has:
A terrific set of Midnight Court related
material here. It includes detailed translation notes,
autobiographical details, and a side-by-side translation.
With a lively lover she wouldn’t have quit
Once she was lighted, you know she’d stay lit.
With the proper partner she’d never take flight
Entranced on her back with her eyes shut tight
She wouldn’t jump with inappropriate fright
Attack like a cat or scratch or bite,
But lie with him in embrace combined
Side by side with legs entwined,
Exchanging sweet nothings, little white lies
Lips to lips, fingers stroking his thighs.
The Midnight Court, Brian
Merriman, 1780
Translated by Noel Fahey
Professor Seán Ó Tuama
describes The Midnight Court well:
“The Midnight
Court is undoubtedly one of the greatest comic
works of literature, and certainly the greatest comic poem
ever written in Ireland. … It is a poem of gargantuan
energy, moving clearly and pulsatingly along a simple story
line, with a middle, a beginning and an end. For a poem
of over one thousand lines it has few longeurs.
It is full of tumultuous bouts of great good humour, verbal
dexterity and rabelesian ribaldry. It is a mammoth readable
achievement with little need of gloss.” (Brian Merriman
and His Court, Seán Ó Tuama, pg. 158)
About the Production
The Midnight Court is a dramatic presentation
of Brian Merriman’s 1780 Irish poem, Cuirt An Mhean Oiche. Translated
by David Marcus and set to music by one of Irelands foremost musicians,
Sean Tyrrell.
The Midnight Court celebrates the rights of women to
wholesome sex and wholesome marriage and it remains as fresh today
as it did when it was written in the late 18th century.
Sean Tyrrell creates a marvelous adaptation of this classic
about the war between the sexes. Its exuberant score brilliantly fuses
element of calypso, gospel, country ‘n’ western, and much
more with a trad core.
Under the dramatic direction of Art O’Briain this bawdy, earthy, stage
production is artistic drama at its very best.
Born in Cork in 1924, David Marcus has edited over thirty anthologies of Irish
short stories and poetry, and has been a central figure in the world of Irish
literature for almost fifty years.
Reviews
What the media said about The Midnight Court at The
Galway Arts Festival
- Galway Observer
Brian Merriman’s, The Midnight Court
(Cuirt an Mhean Oiche), must surely be one of the most exuberant
poems ever written in Irish or any other European language.
Celebrating the rights of women to wholesome sex and wholesome
marriage it remains as popular today as it did when it was
written in the late 18th century.
- City Tribune
Anyone and everyone who has been to this show has
left the theatre glowing about the hour and a half’s entertainment — and
rightly so. This is a show that provided the best night’s
enjoyment during the Galway Arts Festival.
- Galway Advertiser
Apart from the theatrical aspects of the production,
the music itself is outstanding.
- Arts Festival Brochure
This is likely to be one of those
shows, which becomes a tale of wonder and a matter of legend
ten years down the line.
- Galway Observer
An absolutely un-missable delight of music
and comedy…if
you have to sell the children for the price of a ticket,
go see The Midnight Court.
- The Irish Times
Merriman’s classic bristles with bawdy wit
and Sean Tyrell's rich musical settings were a continuing delight
- And from a Nobel Prize Laureat Seamus Heaney
The poem was given a dramatic
presentation with all the boast and blast-off that song and music
and topical allusion could provide. Hundreds of people were shouting
and taking sides like a football crowd as the old man and the young
woman battled it out.
- Ulster News Letter
A marvelous adaptation of Merriman’s bawdy classic about
the war between the sexes. Sean Tyrell’s exuberant score
brilliantly fuses elements of calypso, gospel, country’n’western,
and much more with a Trad core. A dramatically effective and hugely
enjoyable stage-show.
Fusing elements of country’n’western,
calypso and gospel, rhythm & blues with traditional music and
singing, this production, which bristles with bawdy wit,
is presented as an inventive and comic musical work is artistic
drama at its very best.
Videos
Overture Introduction of Poet/Narrator
and Ladies [  Video ]
The Overture introduces the viewer first to the 5 piece ensemble
(1 minute 9 seconds):
The
men yeild to the female chorus for a calypso based
introduction to the ladies. The ladies do a brief barn dance
and move into the first number: Yes - No. We have been taken
to the theme---discord between the sexes which is emphasized
by a cacophany
of sound & light. Here is
a tale full of music, fury and fun, told by a poet signifying
that we may laugh at ourselves.
The Bailiff Hag and the female People's
Court [ Video ]
The
narrator falls asleep in the river valley. He is awakened
by the bailiff, a hag. She propels him to peoples court,
presided over by the fairy Queen, Aevil. This is not
the usual court of bribery, but one of reason & fairness
to right the female's problem
of being sexually deprived by the loss of males to war & evacuation,
with older rich worn out women buying the remainder of
the male population
The Would Be Bride's Lament & Anne of a Thousand Ways [ Video ]
Part A : The Would Be Bride's Lament
The Bride, representing the robust unmarried virgins
growing old, details how the young virile men wed not the young
beauties, but rather the elderly spindly wealthy.
Part B : Anne of a Thousand Ways (
The Beauty's Lament)
Anne, representing the standard Irish green
eyed red trussed beauties, proves her
point by prowess, proclaiming:
"My eyes are green and my
hair's undyed
With waves as big as the
ocean's tide.
And that's not a half, nor
a tenth, of my treasure:
I'm built with an eye to
the maximum pleasure;
From throat to breast to
little finger
I've plenty to make a fellow
linger;
My waist is slim and back's
unbowed,
With the best of fittings
I'm well-endowed;
A look at my legs would
provide a thrill,
And what's between them is better still..."
Fancy Cowgirl on Parade [ Video ]
Opens to a wailing country & western guitar, leading
to a female chorus line. Red Riding Good steps out: guitar & in
her Western red best. Ms.Good prances, dances, sings and
yodels her
way into and through: I'm On
Parade wherein she tells us how & why she is on
parade.
Gospel Sister Testifies about Male
Disappearance [ Video ].
A
pretty young sister strides to the stand, takes her place; and calling
for witnesses to her testimony, the lass delivers the
Gospel according to Merriman. She testifies she is ALWAYS
there for men and she is ALWAYS rebuffed.
Her appetite for sex ALWAYS results in fasting. After "all
that", her patience ended. The Lass had her fortune
told: the muse put a spell on
her. Every Easter, Xmas n New Years Day,
she sometimes prayed, and 3 times she put a stocking filled
with the freshest fruit beneath her pillow. Three times
she fasted.
And "It
wasn't because of Religion!"
The Males defense: The
Guzzler Retorts [ Video ]
The
Poet & the Court hear a spirited
and somewhat salty speech on behalf of the defense.
The guzzler
fits, jigs and proclaims how when and why women can not be trusted
or wived. Their sexual appitite is too ravenous. Guzzler charges
the Cowgirl with whoring for her fancy clothes, blames her liniage
for her ways. Guzzler details in rhyme & song the
illegimate children of a
neighboring lad and of his own and of the means their wives
spawned them and wrongfully pretended and claimed the children
to be their sons.
The lead in ( to the Cowgirl):
" May doubts and dangers beat you flat,
you jadey lump of a begger's brat!"
New Part---Singing his Praises
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New Part---Light on our Father
Program
- Cover
- Sean Tyrrell
- Brian Merriman/
Author
- Art O'Brien/ Director
- Cast
- Production
- Biographies/
Debra Wallace, Bernie O'Mahony
- Biographies/ Judy McKeown, Tess Purcell, John Mullen,Darragh
Wynne, Kevin Duffy
- Acknowledgements
- Touring
Schedule
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