Art's blog

Sir William Tyrone Guthrie (1900-1971), an Englishman with close ties to Ireland and having a home in the Emerald Isle, was a prominent theatrical director in his day. He helped launch the Stratford Theatre Festival in Stratford, Ontario, and journeyed back and forth to Ireland the old-fashioned way, by ocean liner, on the Queen Mary until she was retired in 1967. On board, he answered at leisure his long overdue mail from those who wished to act, who imagined they could write for the stage, or who thought themselves fit for a life of directing bliss. This kind and generous man who could be discourteous and severe to actors in rehearsal was courteous to a fault to his correspondents. Admiring the book, lyrics and music of this correspondent, he replied with excessive civility and sound advice. ‘Stick to engineering,’ he wrote. ‘The stage is a malicious, unpleasant and bitchy world best left to those of mediocre talent who fancy the footlights.’ Counsel all engineers should heed.

In a 300 feet dry canyon in Labrador the mechanical shovels exposed a 30 feet wide sliver of ice-age ice. As clear and lucent as cut glass, the sliver receded 50 feet deep into the rock face, a marvel to behold, and the ice, geologists assured us, was a good 10,000 years old. Then Mr Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009), Chairman of the Board and financial underwriter of the project, chanced to pay us an inspection visit. We entertained him like royalty in the visitor’s centre. His preferred drink was bourbon, so a swift journey into the canyon for a bucket of crystal clear ice, the great financier’s glass of iced bourbon was presented to him. ‘Mr de Rothschild,’ he was informed. ‘The clear ice in this glass is ten thousand years old, guaranteed. What is more, it solves the problem of what to give the man who has everything.’ What a laugh, what gall and cheek to serve the man so! Yet he laughed and smiled and beamed with delight. Unlike Queen Victoria, the distinguished man was vastly amused.

One cannot but agree with the jury that found Mr Mohammed Shafia, his second wife Ms Tooba Yaha and their son Hamed guilty of first degree murder of Shafia’s three daughters and his first wife. As is now known, the guilty three pushed the car carrying the four women (one a child of 13) off the dock and into the lock at Kingston, Ontario, then lied about the deed in a conspiracy to cover up the crime. Yet the evidence is clear. The two eldest daughters made known their plight to their teachers, a women’s shelter, the police and social workers months before Shafia and his co-conspirators perpetrated the evil deed. What then about the teachers, police, social workers and staff of the woman’s shelter? Are they not guilty of neglecting their duty to serve and protect those who so desperately cried out for help? They will all, no doubt, assure the public that ‘steps will be taken to make sure this will never ever happen again.’ Some assurance. Enough said.