The Thaumaturgy Department
thaumaturg
Main Entry: thau·ma·turg
Pronunciation: \ˈthȯ-mə-ˌtərj\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from New Latin thaumaturgus, from Greek thaumatourgos working miracles, from thaumat-, thauma miracle + ergon work — more at Theater, Work
Main Entry: thau·ma·turg
Pronunciation: \ˈthȯ-mə-ˌtərj\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from New Latin thaumaturgus, from Greek thaumatourgos working miracles, from thaumat-, thauma miracle + ergon work — more at Theater, Work
The official blog of the Dramaturgy Department at Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE. For posts related to our current and upcoming shows, click the links to the right. Alternatively, you could begin at the beginning, and explore our posts in chronological order.
Connemara, the land of McDonagh’s Skull. (via Ireland’s History in Maps - Connacht, Connaught - Dynasties and Territories)
Exhumation of the remains of a deceased person
Getting ready for the macabre fun that is McDonagh’s A Skull in Connemara, with Irish regulations regarding “Exhumation of the remains of a deceased person.”
“ On 30 January 1661, (symbolically the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I), Oliver Cromwell’s body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution…. His body was hanged in chains at Tyburn. Finally, his disinterred body was thrown into a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685…. Afterwards the head changed hands several times, including the sale in 1814 to a man named Josiah Henry Wilkinson, before eventually being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.
Now that is some serious payback. And sets a new standard for disposing of formerly buried crania that some of the folks in A Skull in Connemara might want to heed.
Ballads of Ireland, collected and edited.
“ It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
~A Modest Proposal, by Dr. Jonathan Swift
Acerbic Dr. Swift. Surely someone who’d find much to relate to in the world and people of McDonagh’s A Skull in Connnemara.
