Standing Room Only

It was standing room only at The Venue, Strandhill when “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett completed a three day run. An audience of more than 160, few of whom had seen a Beckett play before, expressed their enthusiasm with prolonged applause and glowing post-curtain comments. The laughed uproaringly at the slapstick humour which came as a plasnat surprise because, as one said: “I thought Beckett was a pessimist who viewed life darkly”. As the lights dimmed on the cast – Walter Mc Donagh, Lionel Gallagher, Joe Meehan, Joan Fitzpatrick – it was clear the first Beckett creation presented by the Sligo Drama Circle was an unqualified success.

Fred Zeserson, Dromard, who produced the show, said it was the fruition of a 13-year dream: “The remarkable performance by the actors, who were directed by a visiting American, Philip Price, and the audience acceptance prove we have a responsive chord in the community”, Zeserson said. “I am delighted because now that the Irish Nobel Prizewinner has been welcomed here I look forward to seeing more Beckett in Sligo. In addition to the actors who already know how grateful I am to them, I’d like to thank Mary Brecht, Dave and Betty Meehan, Ken Crier, Padraig Lynott, Pegeen Doyle and James Farrell, a Dromard carpenter, who constructed the stage and set from timber kindly loaned by Meldrums on pallerts from O Connor Bros.”, he added.

Pub owner, Kevin Flynn, was singled out for making his back room available free of charge and for remaining unperturbed while walls were painted, lights installed and the premises generally disrupted. One Drama Circle Member seems to have summed up the general attitude of the theatre goers: “I attended as a duty to the project and was overwhelmed by the brilliant performance of Walter and Lionel in their incredibly difficult roles …….. Beckett’s use of the stage has opened my mind. I don’t think I’ll ever go to a play again without seeing everything a little differently”.

from The Sligo Champion, “On the Line” by Seamus Finn, September 5th, 1980