Entertainment For Summer Visitors

“Performances laid on specially for tourists achieve a spurious or phoney air, and are usually very bleak affairs, culturally speaking”, said Mr. Christopher Fitz-Simon, Bord Fáilte Éireann, at the opening of “Summer Theatre ’71” in Sligo Town Hall. He was speaking on the opening night of the season at a reception given by Sligo Drama Circle, members of which presented “Lovers” by Brian Friel, later in the evening. Few invitations could give him more pleasure in accepting than one to open a new season of plays by members of Sligo Drama Circle, Mr. Fitz-Simon continued. He had followed the progress of this versatile group for many years and now found them taking on a repertory which could hardly be matched by any other group in Ireland.

One of the aims of the company was to build up a theatre for themselves where they could rehearse and experiment and give public performances, and those who supported the season would be helping towards the realisation of this project. It was believed in the Tourist Board that the entertainment offered visitors from overseas should be the kind attended and enjoyed by our own people. Ireland had a reputation for drama and folk music and it was these our visitors ought to be encouraged to see on the one hand and our talented performers to present on the other. He hoped the standard of these performances would always be as high as those expected from the Sligo Drama Circle.

People on summer vacation sought entertainment of a reasonably light nature, he added, and it was encouraging to see that while the Drama Circle had included a number of comedies in their programme, they were, from a literary point of view , good comedies which revealed the social preoccupations of the Irish people. While they would make an audience laugh, they would also give some further insight into the character of our people. He recommended these comedies to visitors. It was also fitting that the members of the Circle had enveloped themselves in the mantle of Yeats and he was glad to see they would be presenting a selection of his verse plays once again at the Yeats International Summer School, he said in conclusion.

from The Sligo Champion, July 9th, 1971