Congratulation to Tristan Spellman Molphy, 9th class, who has been selected as one of five finalists in “The Speech” competition which is part of the Matheson Junior Debating National Mace.
Tristan’s speech, which is an excerpt from Waiting for Godot by the Irish playwright and Nobel laureate, Samuel Becket, is widely considered to be one of the most challenging in modern theatre. Lucky is a pitiful character who, according to Beckett, was fortunate or “lucky” because he is completely without hope and therefore incapable of being disappointed. Many of the challenges in this speech derive from the fact that: it contains more nonsense than sense; it is illogical; and finally, because it relies on complex allusions to the Old Testament that are couched in a series of linguistically difficult phrases. The speech is as funny as is it irreverent and we feel Tristan has done a marvellous of conveying Beckett’s unique ability to mix humour with deep pessimism.
Many thanks to Ben Schönfeld and Sebastian Twoomey who helped film the video.
The winner will be announced on 16th March. Follow updates on the Facebook page of “The Speech”.
