50 Years Of Sligo Drama

October 1956. October 2006. Sligo Drama Circle is marking its achievements between this first and second date by fittingly offering people a chance to look back at the last 50 years. From humble beginnings, Sligo Drama Circle began when a group got together on a cold October night 50 years ago with the purpose of bringing more variety of drama to Sligo. To be a theatre-lover in Sligo in the ’50s and ’60s must have been a real treat as this was the start of an exciting time, offering budding actors the chance to get onto the big stage. In those days, actors got the chance to display their talents in the Sligo Town Hall. Nowadays, productions are performed in the Hawk’s Well Theatre. There was no television in the days when the Sligo Drama Circle was formed and only limited cinema showings, so its existence was very important in the lives of many Sligo people.

Sligo Drama Circle and its forerunner Sligo Unknown Players were at the forefront in bringing to Sligo audiences the best of Irish and international theatre and being the focal entertainment outlet. Proof of this is on display in the foyer of the Hawk’s Well Theatre. An exhibition of old posters, programmes and tickets are currently on display. In the early days, it cost only 60p to get in to see a show. The first play was produced in March 1957 and since then, the group has produced the works of major Irish, European and American playwrights. Its first production of Gerard Healy’s play Thy Dear Father in 1957 was critically acclaimed and came second in an all-Ireland drama competition. Since then, the group has won awards all over Ireland including the Ulster Drama Cup in May 1967 at the Opera House in Belfast with JM Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and the All-Ireland Esso Trophy in April 1970 with Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire.

Sligo Drama Circle has had a long association with the Sligo Yeats Society, performing the plays of WB Yeats and other writers of the Irish Literary Renaissance at the summer school from 1966 to the early 1990s. In 1970 the group launched a “Theatre For Sligo” project which sought to provide a properly-equipped and professionally-run theatre for both players and audiences in Sligo. In February 1974, the then Bishop Dominic Conway announced his intention to present a site on Temple Street to the drama circle for the purpose of building a new theatre. This was a huge step forward for the drama circle. This visionary project eventually became reality in January 1982 with the opening of the Hawk’s Well Theatre, on a site shared with Donegal/ Sligo/Leitrim Tourism. The theatre was named after the play by WB Yeats, which has been produced many times by the group. The programme of March 1982 read: “We hope that the Sligo Drama Circle and the Hawk’s Well Theatre will have a long and happy association and that the words of Yeats about his own Hawk’s Well be prophetically true – ‘He who drinks, they say, of that miraculous water lives forever’.”

The Sligo Drama Circle now renews that association with the Hawk’s Well Theatre as it re-launches its fascinating exhibition of memorabilia in the foyer. It details some of the history of the Circle and includes old photos, posters, tickets and programmes from the past 50 years. The exhibition will be of great interest to the public, especially those who remember the performances in Sligo’s Town Hall. The exhibition is open to the public and is free-of-charge. It is open during box office hours and immediately before and after evening shows. Sligo Drama Circle is currently rehearsing for its next production, Neil Simon’s comedy The Sunshine Boys. It will run next month.

from The Sligo Weekender, October 3rd, 2006