The Performances
Known for moving, haunting novels such as Felicia's Journey, My House in Umbria and Fools of Fortune, Irish author William Trevor is also known as a master of the short story genre. As the New York Times Book Review noted, Trevor "moves between the short story and the novel; Irish settings and English; the capitalized Troubles of his native land and the personal lowercase ones of his characters." He does so with unwavering skill. The lonely, repressed spinsters, salesmen and shopkeepers who inhabit Trevor's stories resemble what people in Hitchcock movies would be like if they didn't get the clues. The lyrical fiction of the prolific Irish storyteller William Trevor will be brought to life by Christine Crawfis, Gerald Seligman, and Don Wildy in a celebration of Trevor’s short stories. Among the stories related in this evening of rich Irish prose are “Lunch In Winter,” from Outside Ireland: Selected Stories and “A Friend In the Trade” and the title story from The Hill Bachelors. William Trevor’s range and sensitivity are truly stunning, and one of his most remarkable accomplishments is his empathy with a woman’s point of view. Yet, like any great work of fiction, the appeal of “Lunch in Winter” extends far beyond the literal circumstances of its telling or gender. It is a deeply resonant story of aging, of longing, of the ways in which dreams may blind us, and how nostalgia for the past may bar us from living in the present. “A Friend In the Trade” highlights Trevor’s skill at drawing, with pinpoint accuracy, characters who are misfits and eccentrics, those who are socially awkward and uncomfortable to encounter. The story centers around a retirement-age couple from London who are selling the home in which they raised their family and moving to the seaside. The ramifications of this decision on their children, acquaintances and, indeed, themselves are subtle but profound. William Trevor knows that part of every Irishman’s birthright is the onerous necessity to face, sooner or later, a life defining decision: do I stay? do I leave? Trevor left. His character Paul (no surname mentioned), of “The Hill Bachelors,” is brought by the story, through a myriad of compassionately individuated personal details, to his specific birthright’s necessary moment of decision. This promises to be a night of Irish storytelling at its best. Call 255-3102 to reserve your seats and join us for The Dark Corners of Daily Beings. |
