The legendary McCourt brothers Frank and Malachy are true seanachies—spellbinding storytellers in the Irish oral tradition. Anyone fortunate enough to have seen them perform their revue A Couple of Blaguards knows that the geniuses who brought us Angela’s Ashes, A Monk Swimming, and their other memoirs (among the best-selling in history) were in full flower long before they were famous authors. This new edition of their tragicomic stage play presents, in seminal form, the tales of their Dickensian childhood in Limerick, told with the acid-laced humor, pathos, and expansive humanity their writing is known for. The play still enjoys frequent revivals.
Intermixing their tales with traditional Irish songs, the McCourt brothers morph into the characters they portray, from childhood pranksters to the ferocious clergy at First Communion (Frank gets sick and throws up God in the backyard), to their meddlesome grandmother (played by Malachy, proclaiming “not only is Ginger Rogers an occasion of sin, she’s the direct cause of all the galloping consumption in Ireland”), to Department of Education bureaucrats who want to send Frank to “remedial speech” to correct his “foreign accent.” The humor and brilliance of the beloved Irish brothers is on spontaneous, joyful display as it is nowhere else. A must for McCourt fans!