CRE na Cille by Mairtin O Cadhain (1906-1971) is widely regarded as a classic and among the finest prose works to be written in Ireland this century. Described by the novelist Alan Titley as: "A feat of storytelling, imagination and writing", it is a dialogue of the physically dead but the mentally alive. Verbal sparring, sarcasm, humour and gossip help the dead pass the time in their Gaeltacht graveyard.
The first National Theatre production to open outside Dublin will be Macdara O Fatharta's interpretation of the novel, directed by Brid Ni Gallchoir, with a cast including Brid Ni Neachtain and Peadar Lamb. It will tour the Gaeltachts after the curtain goes up in Spiddal, Co Galway on Thursday.
But it is ironic that the book on which the play is based is out of print. Indeed, the speculation over whether or not the Connemara writer's classic will eventually be reprinted has become a tale in itself, and offers endless dramatic possibilities for those interested in the theatre of farce.
The copyright to the novel is held by the house Sairseal O Marcaigh, who originally published it in when they were Sairseal agus Dill, in 1949. The present publisher, Caoimhin O Marcaigh, feels he is unable to reprint the book without more financial support from Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge, the semi state body responsible for funding literature in Irish. But a firm from Norway has recently published a Norwegian translation, complete with a cover by Jack Yeats. And still more ironically, the Dublin based publishers, Coisceim, have printed for the first time a lost O Cadhain novel, Athnuachan, which won an Oireachtas prize in 1951. One wonders what conversations O Cadhain carries on in his own grave over the oddness of a known novel being out of print while an unknown novel is published 25 years after his death.
In the best traditions of unjust reviews, one early reviewer castigated the novel for not being the kind of work for which Patrick Pearse died. Prophetically, he also wished the book would not be available to the public when his own children had grown up. He has got his wish.
So the message is: enjoy the play while it tours; look forward to the Teilifis na Gaeilge mini series when it appears; and oh, go to Norway on your holidays if you want to buy the book.