Drama Circle Won Premier Award at Cavan Festival

Sligo Drama Circle, with their presentation of “To Live in Peace”, had wonderful success at Cavan Drama Festival where they secured three major awards. The production won the premier award, the Dr. Lyons Cup; the Drama Circle’s producer, Mr. Joseph Flood, won the Producer’s Cup, while the gold medal for acting was won by Mr. Paddy Dooney who played the leading role in “To Live in Peace”.

He wished to thank publicly the group for bringing to the festival this simple, loveable and very fine piece of theatre, Stanley Illsley said after the Sligo Drama Circle had staged “To Live in Peace” before a large audience. “This was no one man show”, he said. Everybody got a fair crack of the whip and had come up to expectation. The play had established that they had a stage in Cavan upon which almost everything could be done, and that there was a first class staff behind the scenes. It was clear too, that the offstage effects were as essential to the play as the actors. The producer, Mr. Joseph Flood, deserved congratulations with what he had done, Mr Illsley said, and great praise was due to the designer of the set, the details of which were wonderful.

The play was highly suitable for a festival, or, indeed, for any occasion. He was carried away by it, as was the audience, to judge from its reaction. The play was sincere, had got pathos, comedy and action and above all had historical interest. He believed it was a play that would be done by other societies now that the example had been set. In Act I, said the adjudicator, they had an excellent atmosphere which was “just what the doctor ordered”. The costuming showed great care and attention and the accuracy was superb. The entrances all round were very good and the grouping was beautiful. The splendid detail, even to the dust on the boots of the soldiers, was worthy of emulation by other societies. There was a nice, even tempo and the players moved with ease and dignity

Speaking after Sligo Drama Circle’s presentation of “To Live in Peace” on Sunday night at Bundoran Festival, Mr. Barry Cassin said his remarks would be relatively brief because of the final adjudication and the fact that he had seen the group perform in Roscommon, where they gave a “reasonable” show. They were so good this time that they would give him trouble in making his decision, as the sow had improved since he had last seen it. The setting was a very good one, indeed; it had a lot of atmosphere. The first act was effective, but by the end of the play there was a lot of patchiness in the lighting; nevertheless, the lighting was very good. The effects were well done, apart from the opening music, which went on too long. Costuming was bright and cheerful, and looked right for the play, and the interpretation had been correct. He referred to it as a “cosy Little play” and as a “village pump allegory”, which was successful entertainment. It was well directed. The first and third acts moved very well, but the second act had not been quite so good.

Referring to the acting, he said the play depended entirely on one person, and that night they had an absolutely magnificent performance from “Don Geronimo” (Paddy Dooney). It was subtle, deeply felt, and he had comedy and humanity which was a great thing. The part was the equivalent to “sour spuds and butter Parish Priest”, he said. The actor’s delivery was very good, as was his timing of lines. He lost some of the irony in dealing with the conspirators. When this actor was playing, the other members of the cast reached a high level of performance. He carried the show clearly, cleverly, firmly and with absolute confidence.

Agnese (Marie Mulvihill), gave an interesting characterisation. It was a very good performance., though not the performance of the part that he would have expected, but this did not take anything away from it. She played it as a rather refined lady. Maso (Brian Bohan) gave a bright performance. Mattea (Monica Toher) got a very good quality from the part which was effective. The Doctor (Myles O’ Leary) might get more worked up in the second act. It was a straight enough performance. The Corporal (Eddie Fitzpatrick) was very good and had the right touch of bravado. The General (Joe Mc Morrow) had improved his performance but still needed more authority. The Friar (Joe Lally) must be much more anxious and furtive. He was to “greasy” a character. Cavaliere (Vivian Francis) had all the indications of suaveness, but the technical proficiency was not quite there.

from The Sligo Champion, April 1st, 1961