Report From Claremorris

This year saw the clash of giants and with some giants still to take the arena, Gerda Redlich could well bemoan the fact that so many of the shows she had already seen were so scintillatingly good. “It is so sad”, she said, “because only one of them can win”. In the event it was Sligo – Liam Mc Kinney’s production of “Men Without Shadows”.

Carrick-on-Suir chose a comparatively less compelling vehicle in Bryan Mc Mahon’s “The Honey Spike”, albeit a worthy play. They distinguished themselves in a most impressive production and performance and in tieing in second place with such formidable contenders as Sligo Drama Circle and Dublin’s 33 Players, these Munster and South Tipperary newcomers to the festival finals have every reason to be proud of their showing.

Sligo gave us a searing dose of Jean Paul Sartre, the High Priest of Existentialism. “Men Without Shadows” is a play with quite terrifying in its total lack of any vestige of regard or respect for the dignity of humankind. Implicit in it, I feel, is a denial of the Creator of humanity. There is much in it, of course, that offers some telling flashes of truth, but in its dominant message of despair, I found it a thoroughly repulsive and disgusting play. I could not but admire, for all that, the excellence of the production and performance and what was obviously the intense emotional involvement of producer and players in letting M. Sartre have his dismal say. Their right to let him be heard is too important to the integrity of amateur theatre, to be remotely at issue, nor, indeed can there be any question of the artistic efficiency with which they presented his message, but they and I will have to agree to differ on the merits of presenting it at all.

Press Cutting, 1974