Word: drunks
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...rapidly and without any awkward pauses at all. This is no small accomplishment because there are some stretches in the script devoid of "wit," and, because the character are so transparent, there is little to hold interest in these long stretches. Quickly coming to mind, for instance, is a drunk scene in the second act, very lengthy indeed, that served only to aggravate the already parched throats of those in the crowd...
...been under guard here. I need a drink badly. Please forgive me." Two years ago, invited to appear on a BBC-TV interview, he went on camera paralyzed to the point of petrification. When the BBC blamed the hot weather, Behan roared to questioning reporters: "I was drunk." Explained his wife of 3½ years, Painter Beatrice Salkeld: "They shut him up in a room before the broadcast, but were stupid enough to leave a bottle of whisky in the room...
...Vagabond Liver. On the auld sod of Dublin, Behan makes even less attempt at apology. "I'm addicted to drink," he announces calmly. "In the part of Dublin I come from it's no disgrace to get drunk. It's an achievement." Followed by a horde of slum urchins begging sixpence ("Their standard of living has gone up with mine; they used to be content with pennies"), his florid, stocky figure heads out for the boozer before n a.m. He "gargles" whisky and porter the rest of the day, while heaving beguiling blarney to friends and freeloaders...
...Reading Gaol, The Quare Fellow records the atmosphere, the emotions, the tensions of convicts and gaolers as execution nears. But, in Behan's play, as atmospheric pressure mounts, the need for outlets intensifies. Voices are raised, and fists; a half-brutal, half-compulsive humor dominates; the hangman gets drunk; officials get edgy; one warder carries out his job, but in a cold sweat of horror and guilt...
...anti-Socialist wave, the Prime Minister has given his country prosperity, has whipped rising inflation, boosted pensions, introduced a national health service, proved a stout friend of the U.S. and Britain. But stolid, unimaginative Bob Menzies himself has never been personally popular. His chronic testiness ("He must be drunk or paid to come here as a pest," he angrily shouted at a heckler) has not helped him much. When his car was spattered with eggs in Sydney, even the usually progovernment Melbourne Herald blandly refused to remonstrate. "At election time," it said, "it is permissible to be cynical. Indeed...