Mr Noone
Croí na hÉireann
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2005
- Posts
- 11,838
Once, when I was a kid, my mother made me tag along with her when she went to buy opera tickets. At the time, she was working very hard on her English, and was trying, as much as possible, to assimilate.
So, when we reached the ticket window, she told the woman that she wanted to buy two tickets to "The Whore". The woman at the window just stared at her with her mouth open for a minute, then told her, "we don't have tickets to anything like that."
"Joe Green." My mother relied. "The Whore by Joe Green."
The woman shook her head and told her that she must be in the wrong place. They argued, my mom slipping into Italian in her frustration, until a gentleman came up behind us in the line and told the woman, "She wants tickets to La traviata".
I was always fonder of Jimmy Puccini.
In 1977 I went to an RSC play in the West End that was 50p for standing room. It was a restoration comedy with some kid called Jeremy Irons in the lead.

