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One
day last February, as I was reading “Macbeth” again, I got the idea of
putting together both the themes of the tragedy in Shakespeare and my
hero’s story. I was thinking of Scotland again and found that there
was in the cruel story i was imagining, its characters, the environment of
moorland, ruins, the same sort of harshness as in “Macbeth”. What’s
more the atmosphere seemed to me quite fitting for the supernatural :
witches, ghost, would suit Macbeth as well as “the Ceilidh”.
The
title imposed itself on me since I wanted to give the work a certain
Gaelic touch as well. Indeed I really was fond of the western islands and
during my stay in Aberdeen I attended Gaelic lessons. By the way that’s
the time when I bought myself a kilt in the Macleod tartan. So, one of my
character is called Sheumas Mac Leod and he is a gaelic speaker !
True,
in “the Ceilidh” I haven’t quite followed the local story as it is
told. I put on it more ambition, because ambition is in the heart of
the play in “Macbeth”. Then, I have, imagined that my hero was in
love with a young woman, Princess Fiona, imprisoned in a castle next to
the other one, where the main plot takes place. I had heard the story of a
“green lady” who would be haunting the most ancient part of the castle.
Anyway
I found interesting the idea of putting together the two castles, to give
them the same steep cliffs, to unite their characters’ fates.
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