My play, Leopoldville, has won the runner-up slot - i.e. 2nd prize - in the 2009 Kings Cross Award for New Writing. The winner of this award, given every two years to a striking new play by an emerging writer, was hotly contested and the play has done well to earn this prize. It will be produced next year and production details will be posted here and elsewhere. Meanwhile, there is a possibility of a reading in Ireland later this year. Watch this space.
A new poem from me in response to the proposal to build on 98 acres of land surrounding Cuchulainn's Castle, Dundalk. It is written from the point of view of Laeg, Cuchulainn's companion and charioteer. The Folly Out from Tara, the widest road leads to a mount from where the sea can be seen beneath Mournes and Cooleys, at the edge of Ulster. This is Delga. Cú is needed for a battle today. Something about a bull and a mad queen from the West – who it seems is a friend of Ferdia. Láeg is here to deliver this troubling news. He sits in the centre of the mount, waiting for Cú to come from his shave and wash, thinks about which horses to take, for one is lame, when he is possessed by a strange fit. It is so black and dense, he thinks even a warp-spasm, the Ríastrad, could not unloose it. He sees the future: a conquest that causes his people to hide in the earth like moles, the building of a fortress around this place. The image burns in his mind the...
Congratulations, Jaki, it's a very strong play. I can't wait until it's staged!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Barbara. Will of course keep you posted on the whens and wheres of the play.
ReplyDeleteFantastic news, Jaki. Fair play to you (no pun intended ; )) Hope I get a chance to hear or see it or both! Congrats!
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