If the Cap Fitz

For the first time in the series, we’ve encountered an amateur actor who has no qualms about admitting, straight up and no ifs or buts, that yes, he’d love to do it for a living. And at 27 years of age with no marriage or mortgage to worry about, Robert Fitzpatrick has circumstances on his side. He’s also got that other vital quality – talent. But the, as he’s been told time out of number, why wouldn’t he have talent, and he coming from a family brimming with the stuff. Carrying a name synonymous with the local drama movement could be a burden, but Robert’s proven ability in a wide range of performances in recent years has established his own credentials.

He’s the second youngest of the children born to Eddie and Joan Fitzpatrick, and although his father died when he was just seven years old, he has grown up with drama. Too young to have any vivid memories of his father’s career on the stage, he is nevertheless fully acquainted with it. Even complete strangers take time out to remind him how good his father was. He doesn’t need to be told about his mother. Last week’s splendid “Blithe Spirit”, which she directed, bore ample testimony to her abiding talent. Robert is obviously quite proud of his heritage. The sadness of knowing that he can never work with his father – “one of my great regrets” – is offset by the prospect of one day playing a role under the direction of his mother. He’s even got the play pencilled in his diary. It is Willie Russell’s “Blood Brothers”, and in his mind’s eye, he sees himself playing the lead role with Joan Fitzpatrick as the Director. “I really want that to happen. It could take a few years, but I think we’ll do it. I’m so serious about it that I’ve even got the casting worked out. It would be one of the greatest shows ever staged in Sligo”, he enthuses.

Robert bears an uncanny physical resemblance to his late father. It’s not uncommon for members of an audience to seek him out after a show and tell him this. It’s as if his presence on stage has unlocked a memory bank for those who remember the late Eddie Fitzpatrick at his best. Robert finds the comparisons flattering rather than upsetting. “If anyone was ever to tell me I was as good an actor as my father it would be the ultimate compliment. I’m aware of the strong physical resemblance, and I think it struck a chord with older people who saw me as Christy Mahon in The Playboy last year, because that’s one of the parts for which my father is particularly well remembered. I’m sure it will happen again that I play a part which he played all those years ago, and comparisons will invariably be made. But that doesn’t worry me in the slightest. People will still judge me on my own merits”, he says.

Given his background, it was inevitable that he would end up on the stage. He can’t remember a time when life didn’t revolve around the theatre. “Even as very young children, we were dragged to the Town Hall, where we would serve coffee in plastic cups to members of the cast and the audience. We were always brought along, and I have very vivid memories of the excitement of it all. From that very early age, it was something we all wanted to be involved in”, he recalls. It was in the blood, of course, and the propensity for acting was nurtured in his mother’s Speech and Drama classes. A regular winner at Feiseanna, and an automatic inclusion in school plays, Robert Fitzpatrick caught the bug very early. And his performances were not confined to formal surroundings. He recalls how, as a cheeky nine year old, he would set up an impromptu stage on the garden wall and entertain American tourists as they walked towards town from Jury’s Hotel (now Sligo Park Hotel). Maybe it was when the amused and perhaps bemused visitors started to part with the dollars that he first realised the lure of professional acting!

However, as inevitably happens, teenage years brought other interests. “I suppose I was more interested in chatting up the girls than learning lines for a play, so I decided it was a bit cissyish and I just left it there”, Robert explains. But he always knew it would be merely a temporary break. The return to entertainment came during a spell working as a barman in Ashford Castle eight years ago. When the “star turn” would take a break, Robert would be called upon to fill in with a joke or a song, or a bit of poetry reading. Before too long, his spot was more eagerly awaited than that of the billed act. He loved every minute of it. He even got a role as an “extra” in an episode of Pierce Brosnan’s “Remington Steele” which was filmed at the Castle.

He later moved to London, where he joined the Irish Drama and Folk Dance Company, and was paid for a tour of Irish clubs throughout Britain. The experience was a great educator. He auditioned for drama college, and was accepted, but the fees proved prohibitive. So he continued to act part time, working on the craft and extracting maximum enjoyment from it. He eventually returned to Sligo last year, and had been home only three weeks when he was offered the part of Christ Mahon in the Half Door Company’s musical production of “The Playboy”, which ran for five successful weeks at the Hawk’s Well. It was Robert’s first singing part since a college opera in Summerhill, and his first time ever on the boards of the Hawk’s Well. But he played a stormer. “It was the longest run of any play in the Hawk’s Well up to that point, so it broke new ground and people might have been worried whether we would get tired or fed up with it. But you don’t ever get tired on stage. Every night is a fresh challenge. Anyone who gets tired or bored by the stage shouldn’t really be on it in the first place”, he says.

He says his part in “The Playboy” was an announcement that he was back in circulation and available for any role any company wished to throw at him. He even got a few gigs as a stand-up comedian – which he thoroughly enjoys – at private parties. Coolera Dramatic Society took heed of the “announcement” giving him a role in their Christmas Panto, “Sinbad”, last year. It was a memorable experience. “It was absolutely fantastic. Coolera is a fabulous group to work with, and Panto is every actor’s dream because you have a licence to do virtually anything on stage, within reason. “It’s a great medium for letting yourself go. And the ad-libbing is unbelievable. You never know, for instance, what Brian Devaney will come up with next. I’m sure if a person went to see that show in the first week and went back again in the final week they would have seen two completely different shows. That’s the magic of Panto”, Robert says.

His next work, “On the Outside”, co-produced by Sligo Drama Circle and the Drama Society of the RTC, marked a personal milestone in that it was his first part with the Drama Circle, with whom his parents had made so many memorable performances over the years. But his greatest challenge was in John Kavanagh’s “No Comet Seen” earlier this year. As he prepares for the short re-run of the play next week, Robert wonders if the play got the recognition it deserved locally. “As far as I’m concerned, this is a piece of theatrical history for Sligo, and the region should be proud of it. It’s written by a Sligoman; it has a completely local cast; the technical people are all Sligo people, and its premier performance is in a local theatre. And on top of all that, it’s a brilliant piece of work. I know that sounds presumptuous coming from a member of the cast, but I can honestly say that every single person involved in the project has done a first class job. Some day, I hope, the play will get the recognition it deserves”, he says.

As well as “No Comet Seen” Robert is currently working in rehearsal for this year’s Panto which opens next month, and in the early stages of preparation for Brian Friel’s “Translations”, which the Coolera group is staging in the new year. In the real world, he’s a salesman with local computer company Compupac, and while he obviously loves the job – he tied up a neat bit of business even as we spoke – he makes no secret of his longing to be a professional actor. “If any amateur actor says he wouldn’t love to do it for a living he is being less than honest with himself. What could be better than being paid for something which we all love to do for nothing. It would be something of a dream come true as far as I’m concerned”, he concedes.

He hasn’t forgotten those summer evenings on the garden wall when his one man show enthralled the American tourists, and now he’s planning to repeat the performance in a more formal setting. “I’m hoping to get something together for local hotels next summer. What I have in mind is a small cabaret with a bit of storytelling, poetry, songs and maybe even a dance or two. I’ve spoken to a few hoteliers, and the reaction so far has been positive, so hopefully it will come off”, he says. As we part, Robert remembers something he meant to tell me. “Oh by the way, I nearly forgot. I once posed for “Playboy” centre-spread. Great job!” I’m not sure whether he was serious. But I wouldn’t put it past him. Not so much a chip off the old block, as a unique mould. Great crack.

An interview with Robert Fitzpatrick by Jim Gray in The Sligo Champion, Showstopper Series, November 19th, 1993