Home Before Night

Abstract

In this rubric we present various perspectives on theatre – historical and contemporary, intercultural and culture-specific, unexpectedly weird, unusually suspenseful, disturbedly gripping, fascinatingly enigmatic … In this autobiographical text, Irish author Hugh Leonard remembers moments from his youth that triggered his curiosity for theatre and set the course for his later career as a playwright/dramatist. Every morning when you came in, you signed the attendance book, and Mr Drumm would carry it off to his own table to mark the names of the latecomers in red ink. One day, he made to pick up the book, then looked closely at it. ‘Come here and sign your name, Mr Kennedy,’ he said.‘Oh, I signed me name,’ Mr Kennedy said without budging from his chair, and sure enough Jack had seen him bending over the book with a pencil in his hand. ‘You did not sign your name,’ Mr Drumm said. ‘You will come here and do so now.’ ‘Oh, I signed it right enough,’ Mr Kennedy said happily. A redness was spreading into Mr Drumm’s face. ‘And I tell you you did not. Now sign this book or be marked absent.’ Mr Kennedy just grinned as if he was too cute ...