Summer Programme 1974

Miss Eily Kilgannon, Chairman of the Publicity sub-committee announced the programme for Summer Theatre ’74. This year’s season will commence on June 25th with an official opening by Mr. Brendan O’ Brien of Athlone, President of the Amateur Council of Ireland, followed by “The Millionairess” by George Bernard Shaw. This is the fourth year in a row plays by Shaw will be presented during summer theatre and “The Millionairess” should prove as popular as the other Shaw plays done in previous years. Mid-July will see the second play – “Juno and the Paycock” by Seán O’ Casey. This tragic comedy has never failed to grip and delight audiences everywhere and the revival of the O’ Casey classic should pack in locals and visitors alike. The approach of August and the Yeats International Summer School will bring the Circle once again to Walter Mc Donagh’s productions of plays by W. B. Yeats. This year’s choice will be “At The Hawk’s Well” and “Deirdre”. There was a time when many Sligo people were under the impression that these plays were strictly for Summer School students but over the last few years the Yeats plays were proving more and more popular with a wider section of the public and it was found necessary to extend the run.

Mid-August to September introduces one of the most ambitious efforts during Summer Theatre when the Circle will produce “Stephen D”, the Hugh Leonard’s adaptation of James Joyce’s “Stephen Hero” and “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”. The cast of this play is enormous by most standards and the Circle feels that Sligo audiences will respond to this slice of Joyce’s life as vividly as did the audiences from Dublin and London’s West End. “We could not let this mention of Summer Theatre go by” said Miss Kilgannon, “without thanking the North West Tourism Organisation for their support each year and Bank of Ireland Group for sponsoring the opening of our Summer Seasons.

from The Sligo Champion, June 14th, 1974