Frank O’Connor and Hugh Leonard’s dialogue-free study of the antics and hardships of two Trappist monks (Milo O’Shea and Jack MacGowran) in an Irish monastery. Leonard wrote the script for this piece with full dialogue, with instructions for the actors to merely mime the essence of what was being (un)said. A second dumb-show, The Retreat, concerning an innocent young priest newly arrived in Dublin, was written at the same time and screened later in the year.
Don Wells
September 15, 2016 at 3:28 pm
I remember seeing this. It was brilliant, beautifully acted, funny and moving.
My favourite scene was when the monks, having a sly beer or three, play some music and Milo lifts his habit to his knees and starts to dance. The rest are clapping but not cheering (Trappist, remember?) You get a close shot of his feet as he dances.
Then a woman’s voice is heard, a voice full of love, saying something like, ‘O will ye look at the dancing feet of him. Isn’t he the great dancer?’.
Milo’s feet stop dancing and the clapping dies away as the camera pans up to his face. There are tears in his eyes.