Hot Gold

national | arts and media | opinion/analysis Saturday May 14, 2005 15:04 by Sean Crudden - impero sean at impero dot iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth 087 9739945

Will The Lilliputians Bind and Stultify The Abbey?

The Abbey Theatre had almost dropped off the nation's radar until the centenary celebrations last year. Now it seems to be undergoing a crucial hour of trial.

Sean Crudden

"Wednesday 7 July `04

New editor of the Democrat. Dolan O’Hagan. He left my letter out - a bad omen? Rosanna and I attended the Abbey Theatre production of ‘The Playboy of the Western World,’ in the Town Hall. Met 2 Australian visitors in the queue outside. ‘We live beside the 17th tee of a golf-course,’ the woman confided. Rosanna had a whiskey and red at ½ time in Kay’s. Met a mod Joe McGuinness there. Martin Bellew spoke briefly to me as he finished his descent from the stairs. Teresa O’Hanlon spoke (at the interval) at the same place. Michael did not. Said "Hello" to Rita McCormac & exited quickly after speaking to Bellew. Message from Aisling as I tucked into a little cornflakes ~ 10.30 p.m. Rosanna rang her back - she is ok (in Spain)."

The rather smug understatement of my diary of a beautiful summer’s day last year full of hope and elation after a hot performance in Dundalk Town Hall conceals a feeling of fullness and fulfilment I was experiencing that day.

Outside the hall before the play I was excited and proud in a quiet way that The Abbey was appearing in Dundalk. The performance exceeded my expectations. I felt the company could wring no more from the text and there was at least one individual performance which was up there in wit and presence with the best. East met West. Young met old. The early 20th century met the early 21st. Apart from everything else the production was colourful and entertaining. I heard afterwards that the production was slated on Broadway - I don’t know why or what exactly was written. In any case negativity like that did not devalue for me what was my own experience and I suspect the Yankee ability to appreciate the cadences of an "Irish" play.

Anyway I have had a warm feeling towards Ben Barnes since that time because the Dundalk experience of the Abbey centenary was very positive.

Let’s hope we are not keeping the dross and letting the gold flow away in these anti-climactic days. Mary Harney did something like that in the Department of Health and Children, I think. The same general idea applies sadly to the Progressive Democrats party when on considers what Liz O’Donnell leaves behind as she prepares to bow out of electoral politics.

No. I would prefer to see big vulnerable people in charge at The Abbey who are prepared to take risks. In general a penny-pinching attitude in the national theatre is despicable.

And I hope too that Mary Cloake’s caveat that the government should be kept at arms length from the Abbey Theatre is taken seriously by everyone who has the future of theatre in Ireland genuinely at heart.