Garter Lane served up a literary and theatrical treat by bringing to Waterford the celebrated actor, Tom Courtenay with his famed one-man show about the glum and reticent English poet, Philip Larkin, who despite his fussy and fustian pretence about being a fuddy duddy had three women on the go almost at the same time. None of this randy reticence comes out in Courtenay’s more sanitised version but the title contains and excuse all that with – Pretending To Be Me.
What a performance Courtenay gave and a capacity audience was mesmerised by the quirky humour and angry asides about Ted Hughes, a fellow poet who courted the fame and publicity that Larkin avoided and shunned.
