All posts by ebow

George Shiels was a major playwright at the Abbey Theatre from 1921 to 1947. He had 23 plays premiered at the Abbey Theatre and yet he only saw one of them because he was confined to a wheel-chair following an accident while working on the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1913.

The Passing Day is a subtle and humorous study of greed. Ray Mc Anally and Pat Leavy appeared in this 1981 production, mounted to mark the centenary of the playwright’s birth. In the play, John Fibbs, is a workaholic, a skinflint and tight-fisted shopkeeper who has foregone all relaxation and pleasure in his life in order to fulfill one secret dream to go on a long cruise, “a thousand miles up the Amazon”. As he lies dying in hospital attended on by his wife (who is not exactly heartbroken at his impending demise), the detailed events of his last day in business are revealed with sardonic irony and detachment.

A much loved scene from Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa sees the Mundy Sisters give themselves over to the music and dancing wildly about the kitchen. Lughnasa is harvest time and is named after Lugh, the pagan God who provides rich crops.

In this image are Bríd Brennan, Catherine Byrne, Bríd Ní Neachtain and Frances Tomelty. This play was directed by Patrick Mason and went on to tour to Broadway in 1992 winning the Tony Award for Best Play.

In the programme for this production, Michael Etherton author of Contemporary Irish Dramatists wrote about the power of theatre,

“Friel is not only communicating new ways of thinking, he is also trying to show the audience how theatre does it – i.e. how the integration of writer, technicians, actors and above all the audience, creates that sudden moment of heightened awareness. The audience re-make the writer’s play in their own imaginations. They make it their own understanding.”

That opening night coincided with the opening of the new portico on the front of the building.

Dubliner Mark O’Rowe won the George Devine Award, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and an Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Award for Best New Play for Howie the Rookie in 1999.

The Abbey Theatre’s 2007 production of his play Terminus toured to New York’s Under the Radar Festival and to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008 where it won an Edinburgh Fringe First.

Catherine Walker is pictured here in the 2009 production when we toured the play Australia to present it at the renowned Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Mark’s work was first produced at the Abbey Theatre in 2001 with Made in China and he was appointed joint writer-in-association for the Abbey’s centenary year.

Hester Swane is a woman scorned. Her husband Carthage has become a prosperous farmer and is leaving Hester to marry a respectable girl.

Marina Carr’s play is the story of Medea re-imagined and transported to the bogs of Midlands Ireland. The play is packed full of timeless characters such as a ghost fancier, a catwoman and neighbours who are not what they seem.

Here we see Hester Swane, played by Olwen Fouéré with Catwoman played by Joan O’Hara. This production was directed by Patrick Mason with set design by Monica Frawley.

This was a significant moment; in 1998 Marina Carr was the first woman playwright to premiere on the Abbey stage in some years. Her plays Ullaloo, The Mai and Portia Coughlan were previously produced on the Peacock stage.

The Abbey Theatre will revive By the Bog of Cats in 2015.

Photographer: Amelia Stein

In Marina Carr’s second play at the Abbey Theatre, Olwen Fouere played The Mai, a 40 year old woman struggling to save her marriage. The play features four generations of women from the one family. Joan O’Hara played Grandmother Fraochlan, an opium-smoking woman who carts around a ten-foot oar at all times as a reminder of her dear husband.

Christopher Fitz-Simon noted “most of Marina Carr’s productions were at the Abbey. The sequence of The Mai (1994, directed by Brian Brady), Portia Coughlan (1996, directed by Garry Hynes) and By the Bog of Cats (1998, directed by Patrick Mason) is characterized by recklessly unhappy personal relationships in a newly evolved provincial society that is only one generation removed from peasant or itinerant culture; the language is scabrous, intensely local in idiom and syntax.”

Prayers of Sherkin was Sebastian Barry’s second play at the Abbey Theatre. A love story, it tells the story of Fanny, a young Quaker girl living in a dying religious community on Sherkin Island, West Cork in the 1890s.

An innocent girl, she is caught between starting a new life on the mainland and leaving her doomed community. On a rare shopping trip to the mainland town of Baltimore, she meets and befriends Patrick Kirwan a modest man. He has left his harrowing career printing drawings of murder victims for the Cork newspaper The Examiner.

This photo features Sebastian Barry’s mother Joan O’Hara (second from right), Alison Deegan, (far right), Alan Barry (centre), Dorian Hepburn (second from left) and Phelim Drew (far left). 

A portrait of Sebastian by Mick O’Dea was recently unveiled and hangs in the Abbey Theatre Bar.

Blinded by the Light featuring Donal O’Kelly and Frank Kelly (both pictured) is set in a bed-sit in Dublin’s flat-land. When Mick opens the door to Mormon missionaries after a feed of magic mushrooms events take a turn for the worse.  Visits from the Legion of Mary, the Association of Garda Sergeant Landlords and the entire Drogheda United Supporters’ Club (Dublin Branch) ensue. 

Dermot Bolger’s plays at the Abbey in the 1990s deal with societal issues such as heroin (One Last White Horse) and the lives of Dubliners and as such, provide a real snap-shot of the time. 

This scene is evocative of the 1990s, from the set dressing down to those distinctive jumpers! The set features a Dublin bus-stop. The poster on the wall reads: Healthy or Smoking – The choice is yours. 

Dermot Bolger was Writer in Association at the Abbey Theatre in 1997.

At a time when the housing boom is mooted in the newspapers again, we recall the first and only performance of Glengarry Glen Ross by great American playwright David Mamet. 

The play introduces four struggling salesmen at various stages of their careers, all employed by the same Chicago real-estate office. At a Chinese restaurant, Shelly Levene is pleading with middle management stooge John Williamson for a couple of hot sales leads. Levene is a desperate former hotshot, now aging and in the midst of a long losing streak. He is so desperate for a break that he’s no longer sure he’d know what to do with it if he got one. 

In this scene Garret Keogh plays Richard Roma, Clive Geraghty plays Shelly Levene, Peadar Lamb plays David Moss and John Kavanagh plays John Williamson. The production was directed by Louis Lenten. 

The Abbey Theatre has a long history of presenting the work of American playwrights from Eugene O’Neill to Mamet to Sam Shepard.

This beautiful photo captures the essence of theatre; the three actors Kate O’Flynn, Godfrey Quigley, Tom Hickey supported by writer, Tom Murphy and director, Patrick Mason.

The Gigli Concert is a momentous and iconic play that handles the exploration of human crisis in an altogether fascinating style.

In The Gigli Concert, J.P.W. King, dynamatologist is 46 years old, English and living in Dublin. Caught between the demands of Mona, his mistress, Helen, the unattainable love of his life and an insatiable taste for vodka, the question of how to get through the day is a major one. Then a man walks into his office one morning – a man who wants to sing like Gigli.

The Gigli Concert was a huge undertaking for the actors, as we glimpse in this description from Tom Hickey of his routine at the time –

– 6am Rise and learn lines

– 9.45am Travel to Abbey

– 10.30am Rehearsal

– 1pm Sandwiches and tea with Godfrey while going over the script

– 2pm Rehearsal

– 5.45pm Go home and eat main meal of the day

– 7.30pm Resume learning lines

– 11pm Go to bed and try to sleep

“Before any new play opens, the playwright prays that, somehow, all the subtleties within his/her work with be recognised, understood and brilliantly presented to the audience on Opening Night. It is asking a lot but, in the premiere of Canaries under the direction of Patrick Mason, not a beat nor a subplot was missed – and I think that this poster by Brendan Foreman predicts that perfection. The vibrant colours and the island setting indicated a comedy – but the stylised, caged characters tell us that these people, in their apparent freedom, are not free. We may already know that this is a play about the Irish frolicking abroad and maybe it is also telling us that, although we can take the Irish out of Ireland, we cannot take Ireland out of the Irish, no matter where they go. The poster challenges us to discover why these people with all the trappings of escape, still stand imprisoned within themselves. Canaries – my second play and my first to open on the main Abbey stage – was a very popular success and this wonderful poster by Brendan Foreman more than played its part in achieving that.”

– Bernard Farrell

Faith Healer by Brian Friel starring Donal Mc Cann as Francis Hardy, John Kavanagh as his Manager, Teddy and Kate Flynn as his wife Grace was an absolute tour de force when it premiered at the Abbey Theatre in 1980.

To an Irish audience the role of Francis Hardy is synonymous with Donal Mc Cann who gave what is considered to be one of the great performances of modern Irish theatre in the production directed by Joe Dowling.

Recalling the performance, The Guardian wrote:

“…The New York Times hailed him as an “astonishing Irish actor”. The comment echoed reviews for his performance in Brian Friel’s Faith Healer at the Abbey theatre, Dublin, in 1980, when, standing alone in the spotlight, interpreting Friel’s magic in that pain-filled cream-and-whiskey voice, he had audiences mesmerised. On the first night there was a silence of several seconds before the spell was broken and the applause erupted.”

Aristocrats premiered on the Abbey stage in 1979 and toured to Belfast later that year. 

This photograph was taken by Paul Moore, a technician for that touring production. It depicts the full creative team and the actors. Back row: Joe Dowling, director, far left, Paddy Rose, Carpenter, second from left, Brian Collins, Production Manager, third from left, Jim Colgan, Sound Design, fourth from left, John Kavanagh, Casimir, fifth from left, Kevin Mc Hugh, Tom Huffnung, second from right. We haven’t yet identified the man standing far right. 

Second row: Geoff Golden, Father, far right on steps, Rhona Woodcock, Stage Director, front right, Liam Neeson, Eamon, centre, Derbhla Molloy, Alice, fourth from left, Bill Foley, Uncle George,third from left, Ingrid Craigie, Claire, second from left, Leslie Scott, Lighting Designer.

Front row: Kate Flynn, Judith, far left, Wendy Shay, Set Designer, second from left. We haven’t yet identified the woman seated in the front beside Wendy.

Stephen Rea played Eamon in the original production but in the subsequent revival on tour Liam Neeson takes that part. This was his first role with the Abbey company; having previously been a member of a visiting production with the Belfast Lyric Players.

In Hugh Leonard’s memory play A Life, Drumm (Cyril Cusack) tries to take stock of his life. He visits two old friends, Lar and Mary Kearns but his mind drifts back to another evening, 40 years previously and to happier times. 

This image taken by Fergus Bourke features a scene from Drumm’s past on a bandstand in a local park. Stephen Brennan played Young Kearns and is pictured here with Derbhla Molloy, Garrett Keogh and Ingrid Craigie. Stephen Brennan’s mother Daphne Carroll played Dolly, Drumm’s wife in the play. Three generations of the Brennan family acting dynasty have appeared in many Abbey productions over the years. 

Drumm is actually a minor character in another of Leonard’s plays Da.

In this month of Bloomsday celebrations, we recall Stephen D by Hugh Leonard which was adapted from Joyce’s A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. The play is set in Ireland at the end of the 19th century. It traces Stephen’s development from childhood through to his inevitable exile from his homeland. It reflects a world where family loyalties, patriotism and religion are bonds which must be broken to allow the artist to stand alone.

Look at Bronwen Casson’s set for this 1978 production. The set is dominated by a tree which represents the tree of life. It sets the tone for the entire play. Barry Mc Govern played Stephen D who is really Joyce given its autobiographical nature. Emmet Bergin is pictured in this scene with Barry Mc Govern.

The Dandy Dolls by George Fitzmaurice, one of Brian Friel’s favourite plays, premiered at the Abbey Theatre in 1969.

Roger Carmody spends his days making Dandy Dolls (like a poppet or a corn dolly), much to his wife’s chagrin. When he isn’t making Dandy Dolls, he’s out stealing his neighbour’s poultry. Every time he completes a doll it is stolen by the hag’s son and he has to begin all over again. A visit from the mysterious Grey Man, who takes interest in the dolls, seems to herald a change in Roger’s fortunes.

‘Perennially avant-garde – like the plays of Mr. Yeats – George Fitzmaurice’s The Dandy Dolls was given a knockout production by Hugh Hunt at the Abbey in the sixties. Hunt had been asked by Liam Miller – always a staunch supporter of Fitzmaurice’s work – to review the collected plays which Miller had just issued under his imprint, The Dolmen Press. Fired by enthusiasm, Hunt soon after wonderfully staged The Dandy Dolls, in a magical setting by Alan Barlow. Spooky, exciting, unsettling (what is going on here?), the production was a huge success and travelled afterwards to London.’

–       Joan O’Hara, actor

Frank Mac Mahon’s adaptation of Brendan Behan’s autobiographical Borstal Boy, directed by Tómas Mac Anna, was a major success in the late 1960s and later on Broadway where it won the Tony Award for best play. This cast was a veritable who’s who of Irish acting talent. Can you name the actors pictured?

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Peadar Lamb and his wife Geraldine Plunkett and son Peter Lamb are pictured with Director Frank Bailey on Kilronan Peer, Inis Mór having just disembarked from the Naomh Eanna. They were touring with the Abbey Theatre production of An Cailín Bán by Dion Boucicault, translated by Liam O Briain.

1966 saw the world premiere of P.J. O’Connor’s stage adaptation of Patrick Kavanagh’s Tarry Flynn.  In this photograph Máire O’Neill as Mary, Geraldine Plunkett as Bridie, Donal McCann as Tarry, Bernadette McKenna as Aggie and Máire Ní Dhomhnaill as Mrs Flynn pose for a publicity ‘family portrait’.  The production directed by Tomás MacAnna utilised the stage of the new Abbey Theatre to give depth and vitality to the production, in a way that could not have been accommodated previously.

To learn more about the reaction of the Abbey Theatre company to the new Abbey stage listen to Homes of the Abbey Theatre, a podcast from our Oral History Project here.

Here is a young Derry Power, former Company actor who has a long association with the Abbey Theatre. He recently played Seán Dóta in our 2014 production of Sive which toured Ireland. Derry’s first role at the Abbey Theatre was as one of the neighbours in An Comisinéar.

To learn more about Derry’s early days at the Abbey Theatre visit Starting Out, a podcast from our Oral History Project.

When the auditorium of the Abbey Theatre was damaged on 18 July 1951, the next night’s production transferred to the smaller Peacock stage on Lower Abbey Street. This image depicts the entrance to the old Peacock Theatre the following year displaying a poster for Walter Macken’s Home is the Hero, July 1952. While the main company moved operations to the Queen’s Theatre on Pearse Street, the portraits rescued from the fire remained on site in the old theatre for viewing. Some of the staff such as Seaghan Barlow, the long serving stage carpenter, also remained on site.

Alicia Sweetman designed the set for Rossa by Roger Mc Hugh. It is obvious it is at the time of the Emergency in Ireland, during World War II, because Alicia Sweetman used scrap paper for her presentation drawing. The design is markedly progressive for the time in its use of Mediterranean colours. This is significant because the play itself was a historical look at the political life of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa.

In the old Abbey Theatre…

The stage management files for early productions include items such as props list, curtain cues, lighting plans and on occasion administrative records including dressing room allocations. In the old Abbey Theatre the majority of the dressing rooms were located to stage right. With a relatively small cast only one of the dressing rooms is shared allowing veterans of the Abbey Theatre company such as F.J. McCormick, Eileen Crowe, Maureen Delaney, Ria Mooney and M. J. Dolan their own personal space. The signature of the stage manager Udolphus Wright is missing on this occasion.

The Abbey Theatre tradition was to strike the gong three times and curtain would rise on the third strike. On hearing the first gong the audience knew to take their seats in the stalls as the play was about to commence.

The Rugged Path by George Shiels was the first play in the Abbey Theatre’s history to be given a long continuous run. The Abbey tradition had been to play for one week, on occasion extended to two weeks. However The Rugged Path ran for an unheralded 12 weeks.  During the run an over enthusiastic stage manager struck the Abbey gong too vigorously and it broke in two, an event that made the national papers!

The original gong was replaced, for free, by the manufacturer.  This second gong was in the Abbey fire of 1951 and the current gong was last sounded for The Honey Spike by Bryan McMahon in 1993. The gong hung in the prompt corner until 2008 when it moved to the Abbey rehearsal room.

The original production of Casadh an tSúgáin by Douglas Hyde took place in the Gaiety Theatre in 1901, the first professional production in Irish. This property list drawn up by stage management notes not only the props used on stage, but also a ground plan for the kitchen setting. This was one of two plays performed that night, the other play being The Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge. From a practical point of view, the props listed such as the loy, barrels, clay pipes and tables could be used in both plays.

Famously rejected by Yeats in 1928, this play caused a split between the Abbey Theatre and Sean O’Casey. It went on to premiere in the Apollo Theatre in London and it was seven years later before it appeared at the Abbey Theatre. Barry Fitzgerald played Sylvester Heegan alongside a cast of leading Abbey actors in this production, directed by his brother, Arthur Shields. During the 1930s there was a focus on producing new plays outside of the canon. As well as a warning to ladies to remove their hats, the programme features an advertisement for an Abbey Theatre Play Competition. There was also an intention to re-imagine those plays in a new setting and to that end the leading artists of the day were invited to design the sets. Maurice Mc Gonigal, grandfather of Fiach Mac Conghail worked on this production.

From the outset the Abbey Theatre was a popular venue for visiting productions. The Abbey Company didn’t perform on Sunday nights, leaving the stage free for visiting companies. In this case the Dublin Dramatic Jewish Society, an active amateur drama group at the time, brought Israel in the Kitchen to the Abbey Theatre for one night only.

Gabriel Fallon, a well-known Abbey actor is credited here as the producer / director of the play. Fallon was a close friend of Seán O’Casey whose play Juno and the Paycock premiered just five years earlier but was by then already an established play in the Irish theatre canon.

In 1928 Dorothy Travers Smith designed the set and costumes for King Lear, the Abbey Theatre’s first Shakespeare production. Her designs, in this case for Lear’s Palace, embraced a modern aesthetic which set her work apart. The charred edges of her watercolour designs indicate their brush with the Abbey fire of 1951.

Dorothy not only worked at the Abbey Theatre as a set and costume designer, she also acted in the first play stage at the Peacock Theatre in 1927. Later she was better known as Dolly Robinson after her marriage to Lennox.

This letter offering students visiting University College Dublin a 15% discount captures some canny marketing from the Abbey Theatre in the late 1920s. J.H. Perrins was the Secretary of the Abbey Theatre at the time. This is a ‘copy letter’; all letters sent by the Abbey Theatre were saved on file. Incidentally, this letter was recently discovered by a visiting student from Notre Dame University. 

Blight – The Tragedy of Dublin 1917 by Oliver St. John Gogarty as Gideon Ousley was a social commentary play in that it addressed the awful living conditions in the tenements at the time.

The ground plan for the play was mapped out headed paper from 1916 when J. Augustus Keogh, General Manager and Producer was at the helm and introduced a new logo to the Abbey Theatre.