Ist das Ihr Fahrrad, Mr. O'Brien?

Ist das Ihr Fahrrad Mr O’Brien? (Is this your bicycle, Mr. O'Brien?) is a German biographical radio play about life, works and legacy of Irish modernist writer Brian O'Nolan (Irish: Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966).

cover of first edition 2003

Plot summary

Irish novelist Brian O’Nolan uses numerous pseudonyms for his literary works. In this radio-drama, these pseudonyms meet and argue with characters from O’Nolan’s novels and narrations. The plot roughly follows O’Nolan’s real life as a student in Nazi-Germany, his return to inter-war Ireland, unemployment and career in the civil service,[1] his declining health, dislike of James Joyce and constant financial troubles.

In the German original the drama was subtitled ‘’Eine Hörspielcollage aus der Welt der Wissenschaft und des Suffs’’ (A radio play patchwork from a world of science and booze), a claim that was brought to life by creative use of sound footage, music, audio-gags, and music by The Dubliners and other celtic folksingers.[2]

Literary sources and setting

The radio play draws from a number of novels, articles, and letters by O’Brien using German translations by Harry Rowohlt and original English texts alike. Rowohlt, an expert on O’Nolan and popular voice artist himself, was not included in the project by the producers.

Translator Harry Rowohlt

Accordingly, the play’s many settings include some of O’Nolans favorite places, namely Trinity College, Dublin; editorial offices of the Irish Times; a pub in pre-war Cologne; the Irish country-side; rural police stations, roads, barns, and stables.

Characters and performers
  • Narrator: Hüseyin Cirpici
  • Flann O'Brien: Martin Engler
  • 3rd Policeman: Udo Thies
  • Professor De Selby: Ernst August Schepmann
  • The plain people of Ireland: Peter Penewsky

In the play, a number of writers, historic, literary or public figures, and scientists are mentioned to illustrate O’Nolan’s colorful and over-populated universe, such as Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Graham Greene, James Joyce, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Harry Rowohlt, Homer, Jonathan Swift, George Bernhard Shaw, the Marx Brothers, Brendan Behan, Éamon de Valera, Karl Kraus, Sherlock Holmes, and Erwin Schrödinger.

Awards

Soon after the play was first aired, the first nominations for German radio awards were announced. Later that year it won the prestigious ‘Radio Play of the Month Award’ by the German National Academy of Performing Arts.[3]

’’This radio-play about Irish writer Flann O’Brien is a refreshingly narrated, ironically twisted array of uberwell-known stereotypes about the Irish, like melancholy or heavy drinking. Endowed with brilliant humor, it brings to life the tragic side of O’Nolan’s existence, too.’’

Plaque, Brian O'Nolan

Current ownership

Since most radio shows and plays aired by German national broadcasting companies are not accessible online, current owner and sole distributor is the Saarländischer Rundfunk. The play has been regularly re-broadcast by federal Deutschlandfunk, and regional stations like Bayerischer Rundfunk, Norddeutscher Rundfunk and Suedwestrundfunk.[6]

See also

Bibliography
  • Cronin, Anthony (2003) [1989]. No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien. Dublin: New Island Books. ISBN 1-904301-37-1. OCLC 52696949.
  • Kenner, Hugh (1989) [1983]. A Colder Eye: The Modern Irish Writers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-3838-X. OCLC 254475251.
  • Levinson, Julie, “Adaptation, Metafiction, Self-Creation,” Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture. Spring 2007, vol. 40: 1.

References
  1. "writer's tears". Archived from the original on 2013-04-12. Retrieved 2013-03-15.
  2. Keating, Sara. "Trinity plays host to Flann 100 as admirers celebrate comic genius", The Irish Times, 17 October 2011. "In a twist of Mylesian absurdity, however, the highlight of the day's cultural programme proved to be a science lecture by Prof Dermot Diamond, in which Diamond convincingly argued that O'Brien was not just a literary genius but a scientific prophet. Diamond set recent experiments in the fields of thermodynamics, quaternion theory and atomic theory against excerpts from O'Brien's books, suggesting that O'Brien anticipated some of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century."
  3. Jury Albrecht Behmels Collage zu Leben und Werk des irischen Dichters Flann O'Brien, Albrecht Behmels Collage zu Leben und Werk des irischen Dichters Flann O'Brien besticht durch die herzerfrischende Art des Erzählens wobei die weit verbreiteten Klischees über Irlands Bewohner (Melancholie und heftiger Alkoholkonsum) ironisch gebrochen und derart respektlos aufpoliert werden, dass ein funkelndes, fesselndes Hör-Erlebnis entsteht. Dabei gelingt es durchaus, neben seinem umwerfenden Witz auch die Tragik Flann O'Briens deutlich zu machen - ohne jede Vordergründigkeit.
  4. Radio Play of the Month Award
  5. Hörspiel Award 2003
  6. Deutschlandfunk 2003
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