RTÉ Drama On One, 1 June 2012
Poet and linguist Peter Sirr's drama reflects
on the nature of 'life,' as reflected through books and writing. Inspired by the recent discovery of a poem by Sappho,
nearly two thousand years after he wrote it, the play offers a complex meditation on the relationship of the past to the present,
and how "death" might be nothing more than an interlude: authors living in the past can still speak to those in the present
through their work, and that this form of communication might be closer than face-to-face communication while one is still
alive.
At
another level Oblivion is a love-story, showing how mortal structures such as "marriage" and "fidelity" really do not matter
where books are concerned. Perhaps it's more important for readers and writers to establish some kind of unspoken communication
with each other; it is this type of dialogue that keeps books alive and keeps the pioneer spirit going - the kind of
spirit that leads to the (re-)discovery of new work.
Although the cast is not actually credited, Aidan Matthews' production contained a strong
series of characterizations from Des Cave, Emmet Bergin, Deirdre Donnelly and Kevin Flood, amongst others.
