Nazdravanul Occidentului by John Millington Synge Not thrilling- just 6 out of 10

 Nazdravanul Occidentului by John Millington Synge


Not thrilling- just 6 out of 10

 

This is a comedy with plenty of dark tones.

A young man comes to a village where he is hailed as a kind of hero, for ....killing his father.

-          A pretty weird premise, isn’t it?

I am not sure if I lack the sense of humor, but at first glance I did not find the murder, even more so of the father, to be funny.

However, the devewlopments do point to ridiculous aspects in people’s lives.

The fact that the young man had the guts to face his father does advertise a kind of gumption that the villagers fall for.

Especially the women.

A young woman and a widow, both attrcative are very interested in the killer who is looked upon with high regard.

There are some complications, because the young woman, a girl actually- is promised to another man.

The priest pof the place is very keen to see this marriage done as quickly as possible.

In the midst of some awkward praise and admiration for a murderer, which may seem ridiculous if not exactly funny, there is a surprise.

A man comes looking for the son who kicked him in the head.

Instead of relief- after all, we are not dealing with a killer, the widow is dissapointed to find that she knows no murderer.

She is even mocking the supposed criminal

-          You said you killed your father

-          -...

-          We were looking in the newspapers to read about the crime

-          And...

-          Your dead father came looking for you

There are some humorous lamentations-

-          I should have killed my father earlier- look at these two handsome women fighting over me

  After the intial embarassemnet, a kind of explanation is in order

-          I hit him with a shovel and he pretended to be dead

The widow comes up with a plan, in order to keep her prospects bright

-          If he comes back to the village, we will say he is crazy

And indeed, the old man comes back and starts to talk, but the widow interferes with her version of the story:

-          This man is insane, he came to me earlier, saying that he was hit by an army officer

-          Now he changed his story

There is an unexpected turn and end to this story.

I am not sure if it is moralizing, or the author is trying to use satire and prove a point.

As aforementioned, an outrageous aspect is the thrill that the locals feel and show when they meet with a paricide.

That may turn against them near the end.

But otherwise, this short play is rather forgettable

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