Murphy Plays: 3: The Morning After Optimism; The Sanctuary Lamp; The Gigli Concert (Methuen World Classics) (v. 3) [Paperback]

Tom Murphy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0413683508 | ISBN-13: 978-0413683502 | Publication Date: March 14, 1994

The third collection of plays by "The most distinctive, the most restless, the most obsessive imagination at work in the Irish theatre today" Brian Friel

"James in The Morning After Optimism is literally on the run, a comically exaggerated villain in flight form his crimes, seeking refuge in a fairytale forest. Harry in The Sanctuary Lamp is holed up in a church like a mediaeval outlaw, hoping to keep at bay the guilt of his messy life. JPW King in The Gigli Concert is a kind of cross between Dr Livingstone and Robinson Crusoe, a missionary who has become a shipwrecked loner, an Englishman sent to Dublin by a cult to convert the natives, and left there, beached and bereft." (Fintan O'Toole)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Methuen Drama (March 14, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0413683508
• ISBN-13: 978-0413683502
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,503,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accolades for the Gigli Concert, September 2, 2002

By 

Owen Mould "owenofthemountains" (alameda, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murphy Plays: 3: The Morning After Optimism; The Sanctuary Lamp; The Gigli Concert (Methuen World Classics) (v. 3) (Paperback)

I have not read this book but saw a performance of the Gigli Concert in Dublin in 1991 and subsequently read the transcript. The performance roused a very demanding cosmopolitan audience to a three-return standing ovation and, having seen performances at London's Theatre in the Round, New York's National, Berlin, and San Francisco's ACT, I can say authoritatively this play easily compares with the best in compelling power, emotional impact, and thematic relevance. It has been called "the best Irish stage play of the 20th Century" with significant validity. I say, read this play and get it performed again for it will shock and astound you.