Sligo – Theatre Town of the Seventies

Dear Sir, I suppose that it is not really surprising that Sligo should have a thriving Amateur Dramatic Society. Back in the thirties when most Irish towns thought of “doing a play” as a means of raising funds for a new school or the renovation of a church, the Sligo Unknown Players were setting standards to which few other groups could aspire for decades. In the late fifties and the early sixties when the “Festival” boom hit the provincial theatre scene, and “drama” became the fashionable thing in every town and village, Sligo could boast three strong groups – the Unknowns, now somewhat in decline but still a potent force – the Bernadette Players and the Sligo Drama Circle.

When the gloss went off the acting business in the mid-sixties, and higher standards and harder work took over, the pretty faces and seekers of sudden glory changed to other pursuits and the Amateur Movement settled down to the serious business it is today. Many companies dropped out and others reverted to fund-raising, once-a-year, “let’s do a play” organisation. But in Sligo, the Drama Circle persisted as did many strong dedicated groups throughout the land. At first the Circle concentrated its attention on the Festival scene, now highly competitive with little of the air of carnival and camaraderie it had in earlier years.

Success followed success, the highlights being victories in the Ulster Festival in Belfast’s Opera House with “The Playboy of the Western World” and in the All-Ireland in Athlone with “A Streetcar Named Desire”. But what made Sligo different from other towns and the Drama Circle different from most other groups was that Sligo had the Yeats International Summer School. Yeats the dramatist was just as important as Yeats the poet – if indeed the two may be separated – to the students and staff of this school. In the early years, professional and semi-professional companies from Belfast, Dublin and Cork were invited to provide the theatre side of the course at the school.

But in 1965, Dr. Henn of Cambridge, then Director of the Summer School, and some of the other academic staff saw the local Drama Circle perform “The Playboy” and prevailed upon the Yeats Society to invite the Drama Circle to perform the Yeats plays. This was done in 1966 and has proved so successful that the Circle has continued to fulfil this role and this year stages “On Baile’s Strand” and “The Cat and the Moon” in Sligo’s Town Hall on August 7th, 9th and 12th.

Being now geared for Summer activity, the group embarked on a programme of short Summer seasons of plays. In 1970, it was decided to extend this Summer season as a contribution to Sligo’s tourist industry, and as a means of helping to finance the building of its own theatre which it had by now become essential if the group was to expand and develop as the group envisaged.

The Summer seasons grew in length and standard through 1970, ’71 and ’72 and it was now attracting attention on a wider scale. In 1972 when Mr. Desmond Rushe was opening the season, Dr. Michael Mac Liammóir honoured the Group by his presence and associated himself enthusiastically with the company’s endeavours. This year, Dr. Conor Cruise O’ Brien consented to open the season and when he was unavoidably unable to attend, Brian Friel stepped in and he also praised and encouraged the venture.

But 1973 seems to be in every way the Year of the Theatre in Sligo. One doesn’t see much reference to what is happening outside the theatres of Dublin, Belfast, Cork and to a lesser extent Limerick in our National Press, radio or television, but for theatre in Sligo it is a year of great activity.

In addition to the Yeats plays, Sligo Drama Circle is presenting “The Country Boy” (John Murphy), “Arms and the Man” (Shaw) and “Step-in-the-Hollow” (Donagh Mac Donagh) at least twice weekly from June 26th to September 6th. Earlier in the year the Circle had staged Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and Fitzmaurice’s “The Pie Dish” as well as Yeats’ “The Pot of Broth”. Later, the company moved to ballina with “Of Mice and Men” in exchange for Ballina’s “The Patrick Pearse Motel” in Sligo. In March, UCG came with “The Poker Session”. July 31st and August 1st brought Bivouac Theatre from Oxford to perform a Theatrical Miscellany ranging from Cornish Mystery plays to a modern review-type send-up of Imperial Britain. August also has Marie Keane and O. Z. Whitehead staging “Beckett” in Sligo and the Abbey Players bring “Dear Edward” to the Town Hall on August 19th.

The Autumn season is still in the planning stage, but already a group from Churchill College, Cambridge has made contact with the Drama Circle concerning the presentation of plays by Years and Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka in Sligo in late September or early October. If Oxford and Cambridge both descend on Sligo in the same year, it seems that the town must have arrived in theatre terms.

A Letter to the Editor from Lionel Gallagher, The Sligo Champion, 1973