This is my copy of the book Blood Knot by Athol Fugard. If you haven't read any of his stuff, I recommend that you click out of your browser, run to your local bookstore or library and buy/rent/steal a copy of any of his books. I started with Road to Mecca but you can jump on any copy of a book with Hello and Goodbye if you're in it for the Ronan content. Go ahead. Go do it. I'll be here when you get back.
Back to the point. This is an excellent play. Johnnie, a developmentally challenged adult orphan puts on a ruse for his estranged sister that their father is still alive. Johnnie seeks refuge in the the patterns of numbers and draws you into the comfort of his rhythmic speech. It's heart breaking and endearing, depressing and moving, you'll laugh, you'll cry... Read it. You'll hear Ronan.
Is there anything that the man can't do?
Hello and Goodbye was performed at the Theatre Clwyd from Friday January 26, 1996 to Saturday February 17, 1996, with Ronan Vibert as Johnnie and Tanya Ronder as Hester. It was directed by Deborah Bruce. I emailed the theatre and they were kind enough to send me scans of the program from the show. There really are very helpful people in the world if you aren't afraid to ask for their help.
That's right, boys and girls, your webmistress finally has something that no other Ronan site has! How do you like that?
More quotes from Hello and Goodbye:
Johnnie: "Five minutes- become hours, become days... today!... Friday somethingth, nineteen... what?... sixty-three! Multiplied by twelve, by thirty, by twenty-four, by sixty... by sixty again!... gives you every second. Jeesus! Millions. Yes, since Jeesus.
Johnnie: Am I going mad? No. This is not madness. Those who are, don't know they're mad. Whereas I know... I'm mad... Something wrong there. If you think you're mad you're not! Only when you think you aren't.
Johnnie: Fifty-seven A. You can't miss it. Green windows and a door... a door I never knock. Because it's my door.
Hester: Don't you recognize me at all?
Johnie: I admit I haven't had a really good look yet. I start with the feet and work up.
Johnnie: (to himself) Hester, back in the land of the living. It's her all right. Large as life. Loud as... something. Bold! And not answering questions. The danger signal! Hold your breath and wait.
Hester: Those damn frogs. Were they always so loud?
Johnnie: Croak.
Hester: What?
Johnnie: Ducks quack, dogs bark, frogs croak.
Hester: Thank you professor.
Hester: Since when are you a mind reader?
Johnnie: Tell me I'm wrong.
Johnnie: What will you do if you don't-
Hester: Something that will make you regret the day you were born.
Johnnie: (closing his eyes) Dear God, please let Hester find the money!
Johnnie: I don't love, I don't hate. I play it safe. I come when called, I go when chased, I laugh when laughed at...
Johnnie: Something's going to happen now. There's dynamite somewhere in the house. In Hester's heart. The heart that hurts. Was it like this? He was running- the others were shouting. I'm standing still, nobody's shouting...
Johnnie: I missed the end... he died in my sleep.
Johnnie: (final line) Whats the word? Birth. Death. Both. Jesus did it in the Bible. Resurrection.
After disappearing from the theatre scene (forgive the pun) for five years, Ronan returned with the play Antarctica by David Young in 2001. There is so much online about this play that I have to run out and gather it all up. I'll be right back. Find some way to amuse yourself until I return.
"You are going to carry this place inside you for the rest of your life. It will make you bigger."
"You will have to adjust your mind. Order is your watchword, cleanliness your obsession"
"Men are born incomplete: we have to spend time searching for the feminine side"
(I knew that someday a man would figure that out.)
"Mental slippage. My mind is a tomb"
"D…D is for…disillusionment, disorder, despair"