Threshold

With theatrical productions up and running on a regular basis, Mary and Pearse O’Malley’s attentions turned in 1957 to the possibility of establishing a literary magazine to run in tandem with the Lyric Players Theatre. They felt that the theatre’s achievements were receiving scant publicity from the mainstream press and wanted to rectify this. Attracting more publicity was seen as the key to alerting the writing community of the existence of the company, and encouraging new works from them to produce. As well as this, Mary O’Malley saw it as a chance to fill the vacuum of literary magazines in Northern Ireland.

Mary became editor of the fledgling magazine, adding this hat to those she already possessed as theatrical director, producer, and local politician. John Hewitt became Poetry Editor. Settling on the title Threshold after the W.B. Yeats play The King’s Threshold, the first issue was published later that year. It contained a short story by Mary Beckett, articles by John Jordan and Roger McHugh, and poems by Pearse Hutchinson and T.P. Flanagan, amongst other pieces.

Threshold was met with positive comments by many reviewers, including those of the Irish Press, the Observer, the Independent and the Irish Times. The editors aimed to publish the magazine quarterly, a goal which was not always met due to lack of funds. Mary paid tribute though to her husband Pearse, calling the magazine his ‘brainchild’ and recognising that the effort put into it was repaid by the fact that the project introduced the Lyric establishment to many contemporary Irish writers and critics. These included Thomas Kinsella, John Montague, Brian Moore, Kate O’Brien, Patrick Galvin and Tom McIntyre. Future contributors would even include politicians, with Seán Lemass contributing an article in 1958. The magazine would also have a future Nobel laureate as editor when Seamus Heaney undertook the role in the late 1960s.

Threshold finally ceased publication in 1990, but future posts will explore its impact and discuss some of the contributors to the magazine.

Sarah Poutch

Signs of the Times

Advertisements are one of the seemingly inconsequential aspects of the historical material which archivists deal with. They are rarely the focus of attention, but personally speaking, they are one of my favourite aspects of archival work. Working with the Lyric Theatre’s programmes has drawn my attention to the history of advertising, and to the archival community’s efforts to preserve them as historical documents in their own right.

Pears Soap, 1900

Modern print advertising has its roots in the newspapers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when classified ads of sorts began to appear. These simple descriptions of products gave way in the nineteenth century to illustrations and colour advertisements as technology improved. An early example of a brand which utilised these new tools was Pears Soap. A manager of the company, Thomas J. Barratt, recognised the potential of advertising and exploited it to great effect, eventually becoming known as the father of modern advertising. Pears advertisements based on the painting Bubbles by Sir John Everett Millais were one of the first long-term ad campaigns, running for decades. Other companies strove to create the same level of brand awareness, but lacked the time or creativity to do so. This led to the emergence of ad agencies, which promised results while allowing the companies to devote their time to manufacturing.

Each subsequent decade has seen the rise in the influence of advertisements. In real terms, we are now bombarded by ads daily – the vast majority of which we do not even notice, having grown so used to them. Looking back on adverts through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries though can be illuminating, throwing light on attitudes and popular opinion of the decade in question (the earlier Pears Soap advertisement on the right is a good example, from around 1890).

There are several websites I would recommend to anyone interested in this area, or indeed in art and the media in general. Since the 1970s the archivists of the History of Advertising Trust, based in Norwich, have been collecting and preserving UK advertising, and their website is well worth a browse. A slightly different but equally interesting project is Ghostsigns, which aims to preserve hand-painted wall adverts. For American advertising archives, Duke University’s digital collections contain a wonderful searchable online archive with images dating from 1840 to 1929. Lastly, the excellent website Vintage Ad Browser has over one hundred thousand digitised adverts available to view by category and decade – don’t click through to this one unless you have time to spare, as you are guaranteed to lose track of it.

Sarah Poutch

The Lyric Players Theatre’s First Season

Before Breakfast, 1952

After the triumph of the Christmas party productions, the O’Malleys and a small group of friends gathered at Ulsterville House, the O’Malley family home, in January 1951 to discuss the possibility of further projects. It was decided to put on one act plays initially, and the O’Malleys volunteered the use of their home – beginning a practice which was to continue until the move in 1968 to a purpose-built theatre. That was a long way off at this point however, with the first invited audience of just twenty five people attending the first production, Robert Farren’s Lost Light starring Frances McShane. The first season also saw productions of At the Hawk’s Well by W.B. Yeats and The Kiss by Austin Clarke.

Princely Fortune, 1952

Mary O’Malley originated the name of the Lyric Players Theatre. Her intention was to associate with, but be distinct from, Austin Clarke’s Lyric Theatre in Dublin. The success of the new theatre continued the following year, with productions of Before Breakfast by Eugene O’Neill, Princely Fortune (adapted from the Chinese) and A Swan Song by Anton Chekhov. It was very much a family endeavour, with Mary’s mother making costumes for these early productions and her brother Gerard assisting with props and set design.

In November 1952 the O’Malleys moved to a new home, Beechbank on Derryvolgie Avenue, Belfast. This house was to be the backdrop to dozens more productions and would see the transition of the Lyric Players Theatre from amateur group of enthusiasts to professional theatre company.

Sarah Poutch

Druid Hits a Century

It took Druid theatre a mere seventeen years to make it to a century of productions. In the mid 1970’s when Druid was first established, it would go on to set a precedent for producing and promoting the work on new Irish writers and playwrights as well as producing relevant revivals of classic Irish and international works.

Straw mask as worn in the play

The piece chosen to be Druid’s 100^th production in October of 1992 was At the Black Pig’s Dyke and was written by Vincent Woods. The play is a dark, terse and engaging piece that traces the experiences of a life marked by violence and with questions of identity along Ireland’s border between north and south.

'The Black Pig’s Dyke' is a fortified series of divisions and ramparts along the boundary of the historic province of Ulster in old Gaelic society. The people who inhabited this area are known as ‘mummers’ and are presented here at straw-masked tribal warriors. The play is teaming with folklore and stories native to the border region. These ‘mummars’ wander from village to town and entertain those who they meet with local songs and music, all the while dancing and providing a visual spectacle dressed in their towering straw masks, boots and straw skirts dotted with poppies – the first instance of blood imagery and lust for violence.

Original play poster

Quickly the play descends into fear and violence. The wedded union of a catholic girl to a Protestant man sets in motion the cyclical motion of revenge and killing. The sectarianism is a direct and unashamed commentary on the conflict and killing experienced by those in the North. The fact much of this story is based on inherited folklore highlights the sad connection that for many in the North and indeed the South, their inherited legacy was that of fear, distrust and killing. The fact the play is set at ‘the Black Pig’s Dyke’ along the border between north and south sets the play in a void between the sectarianism and where identity and connection with the self as a citizen is blurred.

This 100^th production by Druid received headline reviews in national and regional press in the North and South and includes “A remarkable mix of passion and despair”, “The unmasking of brutal violence in stunning new play” and with comments such as “Masked men, eyes glittering fantastically through slitted hoods immediately herald horror. We had and have on our North/South border such disguised murdering avengers who hunt their prey under the cover of darkness”

The play is a supremely important commentary in Irish theatre on the despair, passion, killing and loss suffered for generations in Ireland’s North and its border regions. The play was produced at Druid Lane theatre, Galway and toured nationally to co, Galway, Armagh, Derry, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Cavan, Antrim (Belfast) Meath, Mayo, Tipperary Clare, Offaly, Wexford, Cork, Kerry, Donegal, Waterford and Kilkenny.

The Druid theatre archive contains original documents from the production including programmes, posters, photographs, sketches of costumes and masks, tour handbook for cast members and extensive press file of reviews, cuttings, articles and commentary.

For more information on this production and tour by Druid click here

Flann O’Brien and 'The Dead Spit of Kelly'

This week I discovered a copy of the Brian O’Nolan script The Dead Spit of Kelly amongst many others which were considered for production at the Lyric Theatre. The play, which is about a Dublin taxidermist who murders his employer and assumes his identity, was originally broadcast on RTE for whom O’Nolan wrote sporadically. He is of course more well-known for his fiction, written under the nom de plume Flann O’Brien, and for his bilingual column in the Irish Times under the name Myles na gCopaleen. 

O’Nolan was born in Strabane, county Tyrone in 1911. He studied at UCD, during which time he wrote widely. However, after graduating and moving into the civil service, he found himself constrained by the rules against civil servants publicly expressing political views. This prompted his use of pseudonyms which, while obeying official rules, meant little as his identity was an open secret amongst his colleagues. They found his writing sufficiently entertaining to merit their turning a blind eye.

As Flann O’Brien he wrote two novels famous now despite lukewarm receptions during O’Nolan’s lifetime. At Swim-Two Birds is considered his masterpiece, a complex metafictional work which incorporates existing characters from legend and fiction. The Third Policeman was withdrawn from circulation by the author after failing to find a publisher, only being made available posthumously. It has however found a new audience in recent years due to its inclusion in an episode of the American television drama Lost. Broadcast in February 2006, the episode sparked revived interest in O’Nolan’s work, with the novel selling 15,000 copies in the two days following the show. While O’Nolan has always had a cult following, it is gratifying that this unexpected limelight for The Third Policeman might bring new readers to his work.

For those interested in learning more on Brian O'Nolan's background, there is a three part radio interview with his brother (the artist Michéal O'Nolan) available here.

Sarah Poutch

Christmas 1950: Mary O’Malley’s First Production

MacNeice House, formerly Aquinas Hall

Pearse O’Malley, as well as being a consultant in the Mater Hospital, Belfast, also became President of the Newman Society of Queen’s University after the couple’s move north. Part of this role was to organise lectures and host the Society’s annual dance. As well as this, Pearse discovered that it was his duty to host a Christmas party at Aquinas Hall. He enlisted his wife’s help in making this a success.

Nativity, Christmas 1950

Mary, with her great interest in theatre, took the opportunity to seek like-minded individuals to put on theatrical entertainment for the party guests. She sought advice from her friend Lily Reid, and eventually made contact with several actors who would go on to become the earliest Lyric Players: Paddy Coyle, Frances McShane, Maureen Cremin, Nan McGuigan, Lucy Young, and Bob Haldane. All came onboard and Mary proceeded with her plan to stage two one act plays, The Dear Queen by Andrew Ganly and Nativity by Lady Gregory.

Script for The Dear Queen with Mary O'Malley's notes

The cast had just ten days, during a memorable snow storm, in which to rehearse and perfect their performances. Mary describes herself in her autobiography Never Shake Hands with the Devil as working ‘like a beaver’ taking rehearsals in the O’Malley family home on Ulsterville Road at this time. 

She thrived in the theatrical atmosphere, and the production was a great success. Max Freeland, Assistant Secretary of the university, wrote that ‘it was just wonderful to realize that in these benighted times that there was someone with the skill and initiative to do such a lovely thing’. This triumph sparked the possibility amongst the group of further productions: Mary O’Malley had found her creative outlet in Belfast.

Sarah Poutch

Frank McGuinness's "Dracula" at Druid

Draft artwork from production of "Dracula"

While Halloween may just be passing and the season of Samhain and the month of the souls begins, it is hard to ignore the many films, books and plays designed to scare and thrill readers and viewers. The season of Trick or Treat and ghosts and ghouls is especially remembered in Ireland by those writers and playwrights who inspire to scare. From Sheridan La Fanu to Yeats’ occultism to more recent works by the likes of Conor McPherson have thrilled their audiences by exploring the dark realms of the undead and the unknown.

One piece in particular is by an Irishman who gave the world one of the greatest of horror stories. Bram Stoker’s Dracua has terrified young and old for generations. Druid tackled this work in 1986 and in doing so staged a version by the celebrated Frank McGuinness. Starring Sean McGinley, Jane Brennan, Maeliosa Stafford, Michael Ford, Maurice O’Donoghue, Brendan Conroy, Kate Hogan and directed and designed by Monica Frawley, the production explored the original 1897 reflection on the morality of late Victorian times. 

The production file in the Druid theatre archive contains the original play programme, flyers, a copy of the script, colour photographs of the set, invitation to the opening night’s performance, press reviews of the production and colour artworks and drawings that were used as draft ideas for the play poster and programme.  

In the programme a note by Frank McGuinness describes his thoughts on the evolution of the play: “The first monster s I met were made from celluloid; Frankenstein, Dacula, their brides and curse, daughters and revenge. . .What myth lies behind the powerful hold of Dracula on the European imagination? It is the poetry and power, not the period [of the story] that interests me, for Dracula belongs to a diseased universe, full of blood loss and bloodletting madness. He is not the source but a symptom of that universe, longing for its death.” McGuinness’s version is a powerful production and exploration of moral consequence, a failing human nature and lust for power. Through Frawley’s  hugely skilful design and direction it is a performance that was a success for Druid and not just owing to seasonal influences of Halloween: It was actually produced in April of 1986!

Programme cover from "Dracula" at Druid theatre.