An irish errand ~ 3 minute overview | Ari Frankel

The drama AN IRISH ERRAND is a very contained, intimate feature. It opens in Paris, in winter, after avant-garde writer Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot premieres, changing world literature. People are talking about the play, Beckett’s publisher secures him a super important London theater commission, his name is “getting out there”. But then, he is paralyzed: stomach constipated, intestines in pain, writing blocked, his unhappy wife grows increasingly unhappy, and he is drinking way too much with his buddy Alberto Giacometti… In short: a mess! Beckett's first Trinity College love ETHNA MACCARTHY is an esteemed pediatrician, who after a decades-long affair, finally marries one of his best Dublin friends, A.J. LEVENTHAL. And now she finds herself dying of throat cancer. Ethna writes to summon Beckett for one last Dublin visit. “Must go, on this ‘typical’ Irish errand,” he tells his wife. She is not happy. To Dublin Sam flies, staying at his late brother’s wife’s and visiting Ethna daily. They revive lost intimacies and share deep affection and trust. They walk a bit, past a favorite museum, play chess, Ethna doodles strange characters and Beckett plays her old piano. He even agrees to sing! The two come closer to understanding where things went wrong, and where some went right. Run-ins with an old sexy flame, with a dangerous drunk, and with an admiring nephew, loosen, unclog Beckett. As Ethna flies high and sinks low, he is opening up to memory, to female voices, to embracing his creative genius more fully. Back in Paris, Sam realizes the new energies that have been unlocked. He meets that big theater deadline and is off to London, to direct for the first time. It is the premiere of Krapp’s Last Tape. Ethna’s spirit is present in the tense, exciting rehearsals. After one of them, at dinner with his actor, American publisher and ever unhappy wife, the publisher proposes a toast: “This is the kind of day that makes you glad to be alive!” Beckett, raising his whiskey with a wry smile, says “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” AN IRISH ERRAND will go VERY far, with wonderful actors already interested, an original moving score recorded, very few and contained locations, and plangent dialogue exploring passions, fears, and hopes. I hope you will join me for this beautiful ride!