Paul Hadfield & Linda Henderson Method in Their Madness: 21 Years of the Focus Theatre Author(s): Peter Thompson Source: Theatre Ireland, No. 15 (May - Aug., 1988), pp. 30-35 Published by: Paul Hadfield & Linda Henderson Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25489184 . Accessed: 24/09/2013 16:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Paul Hadfield & Linda Henderson is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Theatre Ireland. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.173.72.87 on Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:02:59 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Transcript
Paul Hadfield & Linda Henderson
Method in Their Madness: 21 Years of the Focus TheatreAuthor(s): Peter ThompsonSource: Theatre Ireland, No. 15 (May - Aug., 1988), pp. 30-35Published by: Paul Hadfield & Linda HendersonStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25489184 .
Accessed: 24/09/2013 16:02
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Paul Hadfield & Linda Henderson is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toTheatre Ireland.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 129.173.72.87 on Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:02:59 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
"I am delighted to have been on the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre - a theatre founded by the great Stanislavski - since I myself started my career under the direction of Deirdre O'Connell at the Stanislavski Studio in Dublin". These were Tom Hickey's words as recorded in his dressing room for RTE's Appraisal after his first performance in Moscow of The Great Hunger, the applause of the audience still audible in the background. His remarks can be seen in the context of the Harvey's Awards to Deirdre O'Connell herself (in 1986 for Outstanding Services to Irish Theatre) and to another of her star pupils, Tim McDonnell (last year as Best Actor). Such tributes represent an extraordinary benchmark of the importance of the
Dublin Focus Theatre in the theatrical life of Ireland over the last twenty one years. Peter Thompson surveys that distinguished history.
Gillian Hackett and Seamus Hickey in La Ronde(1982)
30 THEATRE IRELAND/15
This content downloaded from 129.173.72.87 on Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:02:59 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
"The Focus" declares Mary Elizabe I re-Kennedy, another prominent graduate of the Theatre's Staisiavski Studio, "is an institution in Irish society, and deserves to be recognised as such". Indeed, the lasting influence of the Focus can be seen to
have had its roots in the Stanislavski Stdio which predated the opening of the Focus by four years.
It was 1963; Deirdre O'Connell was 23, going on 24 ("I was born on Blomsday, 1939") and advertising for studets for her very own Stanislavski Sludio im Dublin. Recendy arrived from the USA, a young American of Irish
pa ge, se had studied under Erwin Piscator in his own Stanislavski Studio in New York, and later at the Actors' Studio of Lee Strasberg, learning the process properly known as "The
Method", though the term can be misleading in this context. As Tom Hickey puts it: "There is no such thing as a Stanislavski actor - Stanislavski was himself changg all the time".
Having recruited a small group of students, cluding Hickey and Tim
McDonnell, Sabina Coyle (now, Mrs. Sabina Higgins, wife of Michael Higgins. the Labour TD for Galway West), and the late Meryl Gourley, Deirdre set about producing her first show, an adaptation by Henry Haller of
Hesse's Steppenwolf, entitled For Madmen Only. Ursula White-Lennon
invited the group to perform at thfe Pocket Theatre, Ely Place, after meeting the young Irish American actress there at a production of Sophocles' Electra. "We had the cheek of youth" Deirdre now admits.
The show duly appeared on stage at the Pocket in September 1963, after an
exnsive period of rehearsal going back at least untl July of that year - perhaps as far back as April. The precise date escapes her now. But the Pocket could never be a permanent home for the new venture, and the winter of 1963/64 was spent by the members of the newly formed Stanislavski Studio of Dublin searching for new premises. The Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Pike Theatre, a house in Kildare Street, and evenually the premises of the Dublin Shakespeare Society in Fitzwilliam Square all served as training space during the year. "We wandered around that winter in total despair," recalls Tom Hickey.
Insofar as it did not conflict with the work of the Shakespeare Society during this period, the Studio stayed in Fitzwilliam Square until the opening of the Focus in September 1967. Often,
,tugh, as a deliberate matter of policy, the Stanislavski Studio did its work in thie openI air, giving several impro vised performaces in public parks each weekend of thie year '64-'65. Some members of the Studio performed in well-received revivals of Yeats' C;alvary and Resurrection, directed by
Meryl Gourley at the TCD Players' Theatre during the Dublin Theatre Festival of 1965. However, they did not give any full productions until the open ing of the Focus itself. To raise money
Deirdre O'Connell resumed her acting career in London, flying back at the weekends to give her classes.
A notable event in the life of the Dublin Stanislavski Studio at this time was the visit from New York of Allen Miller of Lee Strasberg's Studio. In his
two-month stay in the summer of 1966 Miller attracted the attention of the Press, and remarked caustically about the standard of training for actors in
Dublin at the time that "the student actors don't have enough dramatic techniques in front of them to give them comparative standards".
Indeed, the introduction of the Stanislavski methods of training into Dublin by Deirdre O'Connell was not exactly greeted by the theatrical establishment of the time with open arms. "Stanislavski wasn't the done thing," recalls Tom Hickey. "The tradition in the (Irish) theatre had been
Early days at the Focus: Tom Hickey and the late
Meryl Gourley in improvisation
that 'Talent' was enough." Deirdre O'Connell remembers with amusement references to her as "the snot-nosed kid from American who had come over to Ireland to teach the Irish how to act. "
It was a prejudice which survived long after the Focus itself had been established. Speaking of the public improvisations at the Theatre during 1971,. Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy recollects that "there was quite a degree of hostility from some other members of the profession. There was this idea around, that you didn't have to learn your craft. Young people today are much more aware of the need for training".
EvnulyIeptetererypo
direcly darsa f ocund The Hcrer from the lt Dubli Shakles nipereocieaty,onn
disusnedl graemebr att No.u6sembrok
Place. An ad-hoc committee of friends, including Luke Kelly of The Dubliners,
Mick McCarthy the builder (whose firm actually did the building work), Declan Burke-Kennedy and Richard Calliman (now a producer with the BBC), and of course Deirdre herself, got together to create the actual theatre space.
Kelly was the main sponsor with ?1,250. Deirdre put in ?1,000. And
McCarthy a further ?1,000. This with a grant from the Arts Council of ?300
made a grand total of ?3,550 - a ludicrously small sum by today's stan
dards, but sufficient to finance the con struction of a small theatre capable of accommodating up to 72 people in reasonable comfort. The seating was so close to the stage, that patrons in the front row were virtually on top of the action - a degree of intimacy that was to be for many Dubliners one of the chief attractions of the Focus in years to come.
Construction began in the early sum mer of 1967, and the building was ready for its first production, Play with a Tiger by Doris Lessing, in September of that year. Although this represented the crowning glory of four years part time work (which had the character of full-time work), the opening of the Focus Theatre did not mean that Deir dre O'Connell and her company of young actors were earning a living from it. The backbone of the whole enterprise continued to be, and indeed still con tinues to be, the operation of the Stanislaviski Studio. For each session the students pay a fee, a small sum, but one which, collectively, pays for the operating overheads of the theatre. This was all the more essential in 1967, when the only official support was an Arts
Council guarantee against loss of ?500 p.a.
The history of the theatre itself from this time falls roughly into four -
(a)1967 to mid 1972; (b)1972 to 1976; (c)1976 to 1983; (d)1983 to the present.
1967 - mid '72
Some of the theatre's work at this time proved unpopular, perhaps as a result of its experimental nature. A typical example of this was its production of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days in 1970. It was showered with praise by the critics who saw it as giving the play an entirely new emphasis, but it was a cost ly failure financially.
Furthermore, the theatre was caught in a frustrating vicious circle. As it could not afford to pay Equity rates, it was not recognised by the union. Con sequently, what commerical successes as there were at the Focus could not transfer from the little theatre to a larger venue in Dublin. This is believed to have been the reason why the 1970 Focus production of Uncle Van ya,
THEA-TRE IRELAND/15 31
This content downloaded from 129.173.72.87 on Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:02:59 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Phyl O'Doherty, Tom Hickey and Sabina Coyne in Uncle Vanya(1970)
which had run for 10 weeks to full houses at Pembroke Lane, did not transfer to the Peacock Theatre - even though the idea of such a transfer had been mooted by the Abbey itself.
Its artistic policy, the link to the Stanislavski Studio, and the size of the theatre created another problem. The small number of suitably trained (i.e. in the Stanislavski system) actors, and the small stage area, restricted the choice of plays. Tom Hickey recalls that "it became a question not of which play to do, but of which we could cast. "
However, the Focus was nonetheless regularly showered with verbal bou quets from Dublin's theatre journalists,
1967/68 Play with a Tiger Doris Lsing Kely's Eye Heny ivings In the Zone Eugene O'Neill
Portt of a Madonn. Tennessee William Hello Out 7here William Sroyan Miss Julia August Strindber.g The Wedding Anton Chekhov Toys in the Attic Lillian Hellman
1969 Antigone Jean Anouilh In Camera Jean Paul Sartre The Creation Lee Galagher 7he Lunch Hour John Mornier
1970 Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov Hedda Gaber Henrik Ibsen
1971 Mooney and His Caravans Peter Tcr son Happy Days Samuel Beckett Cross Purpose Albert Camus A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 7he Father August Strindberg
1972 The Father Aust Strindberg A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen
who wrote of its "discipline", "com pulsive entertainment", "scrupulous attention to detail", and its "unique and exciting approach". Reading these notices today, there is a vivid sense both that the theatre was creating standards in every area of theatrical discipline, and that it was bringing new material into Dublin, not previously available.
The greatest achievement of this period, perhaps of the whole history of the Focus, was the production, in late 1971, of A Doll's House, which at that time - Germaine Greer's 7he Female
Eunuch had been published just two years earlier, and feminism had come to Ireland in a big way - had a par ticularly strong relevance. With Frank
McDonald as Dr. Rank, and Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy as Nora, it ran in the theatre for twenty weeks, and then went out on tour to Cork, Galway,
Limerick, Athlone, Kilkenny and Listowel.
Tom Hickey describes the artistic policy of this time as "ambitious, but sound". Over the period to 1972 and
A Doll's House, the Focus produced plays by a wide variety of contem porary, and near contemporary writers. Quite apart from the Strindberg, Ibsen and Chekhov for which the Focus acquired a reputation, works by Lillian Hellman, Jean Paul Sartre, Beckett, Anouilh and Camus were produced. The Theatre also introduced relatively unknown writers such as Lee Gallagher and Peter Terson.
An important aspect of the work of the Focus at this time was the year-long series of improvised performances referred to above, and which began on Sunday nights in February, 1971. Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy recalls now, perhaps somewhat enigmatically, that Deirdre O'Connell did not herself take
part in these; the actors Ms. Burke Kennedy remembers being involved were Tom Hickey, Sabina Coyle, Ena May, Frank McDonald, Declan Burke Kennedy and Mary Elizabeth herself.
"They could be nerve-wracking," she says now. "We would sometimes take a theme, and develop it from week to week, like a soap opera. I remember one which concerned an imaginary family in the west of Ireland, near
where uranium was supposed to have been discovered - it went on for about six weeks."
The improvisations helped to develop a regular audience for the theatre, and, in Mary Elizabeth's opinion now, "they, the audience, began to unders tand what we were doing". Part of the
work involved the use of soliloquies; the actors would move in and out of naturalism at the switch of a particular light to give a personal view of what
was going on, in the sense of some per sonal story or recollection which could increase understanding of the impro vised performance in progress. The lighting design for these shows was by one Swadesh Porrum, from Mauritius, whom Mary Elizabeth recalls as being very good at his job.
Given the experimental nature of much of its work in this first period, it is ironic that the theatre came to have a reputation for doing only the great Russian and Scandinavian classics. Years later when asking the Arts Coun cil for extra money for the theatre,
Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy was accosted verbally by one of its officials with the line: "But, Mary Eliza, all you ever do at the Focus is Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov." It was the very success of these productions, she suggests now, which obscured the fact that most of the work was actually in other areas of drama.
1972-76
The Focus company was undaunted by the poverty it faced, and by the relative lack of both private and public support. In the winter of 1972-73, the company launched a vigorous campaign for private sponsorship with a profes sionally produced brochure which went into considerable detail in describing
what the Stanislavski method was about, and what the fortunes of the theatre had been since its foundation in 1967. A target figure of ?18,000 was suggested, made up from sponsorship, patronage and a Friends of Focus, scheme. The target was based on an expectation of houses of between 60% and 100%s. It is from this brochure that we have taken the definition of the Stanislavski methiod here re-produced.
The success or failure of the funds drive is difficult to gauge exactly, but three years later, in 1975, the actress
THEATRE IRELAND/15
This content downloaded from 129.173.72.87 on Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:02:59 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... c .r .. i ..c.:. . F. p-0
LA. WIt,-:ead
X~~~~~ ~~~ .S 0-i
7- he Fa-he--X,1972iberg '.''' k kt'''''''''.'''''' nw 'Stretc Claad Van .h.z ' ''" ic '
Th Fat.h.e-.r(1972) . - . .. -. f;K;;
Rebecca Schull, who had been work ing in the Focus during this time, reported in an article in The Arts in Ireland magazine that the theatre was still unable to operate on a fulll-time basis (this, of course, was never ach ieved, except during productions), and thateven with full houses for six weeks, costs would outstrip income for a pro duction by several hundred pounds if the theatre was to pay Equity rates.
Artistically, this period saw the rise to prominence of some newer names in the Focus, including Ms. Schull herself, Joan Sheehy, the Burke-Kennedys (Declan and Elizabeth), Johnny Murphy and Ena May, and to a certain extent a changing around of roles. Tom Hickey directed Eduardo Manet's The Nuns, early in 1973, and Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy Rosmer sholm, by Ibsen in 1976. Michael Sheridan, now Drama Critic of 7he Irish Press directed Tennessee
Williams' 7he Night of the Iguana, in 1974.
Towards the end of 1976, a young actor called Gabriel Byrne made his professional debut at the Focus, in a well received version of Turgenev's A Month in the Country.
An important visitor during this period was Peter O'Shaughnessy from Australia, who performed Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, to acclaim during the summer months of 1973, in a dou ble bill with Play. Other contemporary writers added to the repertoire in these mid-seventies years included Duras, Edward Albee, Emmanuel Peluso, Trevor Griffiths and Murray Schisgal.
1976-83
With the appointment of Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy in 1976 as Administrator, and the arrival at long last of reasonable funding from the Arts
Council, the future of the theatre seemed assured, though there were still financial problems. Throughout her period as Administrator which ended in 1983, Mrs. Burke-Kennedy never took home more than ?30.00 per week as salary.
The Arts Council grant gradually rose during the period after 1976, espec ially after the Spring of 1978, when the
Focus was shared with the Stage One group. At first, a substantially inc reased grant was dependent on the Focus making its theatre available to this group for a period of four months.
But after Stage One had gone from the scene in the late seventies, the Focus grant stayed at a relatively (the operative term) high level, reaching ?20,000 in 1983.
Artistically, the Burke-Kennedy con nection was starting something new also in the period after 1976. "We were interested ten in developing a form of
Night of the Iguana(1974)
theatre which had to do with story telling, not using naturalistic techni ques", is how Mary Elizabeth describes it now. Shows like Alice in
Wonderland, The Golden Goose, Curigh the Shapeshifter, (1980), and especially, Legends, were products of this process. The latter show
Ms. Burke-Kennedy describes as "a major breakthrough in the use of Brook's methods (i.e. those of Peter Brook) 'a propos Irish mythology. Of course, not everyone may agree with that statement, but her work was a
whole new emphasis for the Focus theatre, and found a whole new audience for it - children.
An important production of this period was of Leonid Andreyev's He who gets slapped, in which Ronan
Wilmot played the clown (1979). A Collier's Friday Night, the first of D.H. Lawrence's work to be staged by the Focus, was put up in the summer
of 1978 and was very successful, in the sense that it reversed previous patterns of critical success/popular failure. Some critics felt that the play proved Lawrence was right to become, in the
The Love of Don Perlimplin...(1981)
THEATRE IRELAND/15
This content downloaded from 129.173.72.87 on Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:02:59 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
a uree Curtains TOM Ma 'ns Tdain Tchin Prancois Biletriou :
1978 A Coler's Friday Night D.H. Lawrenc The Little Foxes Lillian Hellman The Dance of Death Augs Strindberg
1979 Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll He Who Gets Slapped Leonid Andryv Old Times Hao Piter The Golden Goose M. E. Burke-Kennedy
7he Lovers of Viorne Maruerite Dtua Enter the PhoographerFocus Studio Copany
Seasn of New Irish Plays Day of the Mayfly Declan Burke-Kennedy Jumbk Sale Robert Emmet Maher Legends M. E. Burke-Kennedy Potaoes Tony Cafferky
Marriages Willian Trevor
The Lady from the Sea Henrik Ibsen Curigh
7he Shapeshifter Mary Elizabeth Burke- Kennedy Evening Light Alexi Arbuzov
1981 The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife The Love of Don PerlipWlin and
Belissa in the Garden Lorca The Price Arthur Millar Lovers Brian Friel 7his Property
is Condemned Tennessee William Shelter Alun Owen Legends M. E. Burke-Kennedy
1982 La Ronde Arthur Schnitzler Corporation Flat Cement Tony Cafferky Creditors August Strindberg Louvain 1915 Baibara Field
1983 7he Strangest Kind
of Romance Tennessee Williams Talk to me Like the Rain Tennessee W idam 7he Lady of Larkspur LoionTennessee Williams Skirmishes Catherine Hayes
Mooney and his Caravans (revival) Peter Terson
Birdbath Leonard Melfi Success Woman Alekei Arbuzov
main, a novelist. But it packed out. 1980 was also a notable year, with a
five-play, ten week season of new work by Irish writers, including Declan Burke-Kennedy, Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy, Robert Emmet Meagher, Tony Cafferky and William Trevor. In the light of current con troversies about the failure of Irish theatre to provide a platform for new
writing talent, this experiment must be judged a courageous one at least.
Tradition was upheld at this time by Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea, prod uced the same year. Lorca was introduced to the Focus in 1981, with atmospheric productions of 7he Love of
Don Perlimplin and Belissa in the Garden, and The Shoemaker's Pro digious Wife.
Undoubtedly one of the most impor tant shows, from both a critical and
popular point of view, of the period to 1983, though, was the staging of the
Austrian Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, in 1982-83. This controversial play,
detailing the sexual lives of ten people included nude scenes which brought an altogether new type, and not necessarily a desirable type, of audience to Pem broke Place.
On some occasions, Mary Elizabeth remembers, there would be virtually an all male audience, made up of people
who had never previously been in the theatre. On a particular occasion some
wretched lecher actually jumped up on the stage, and had to be forcefully ejected from the auditorium. No publicity is bad publicity, however, and the show later transferred to the old
Oscar Theatre where it ran to full houses! One cannot mention this play today without remarking that, in the light of the AIDS crisis, a revival is perhaps overdue, or at least timely.
Deirdre O'Connell, Frank McDonald and Rebecca Schull in John Gabriel Borkman(1974)
Xl?
1983 - the present
As this is written, the Focus is draw ing to a close its most successful pro
duction, in terms of popular support, for many years - a production by the younger actors of the Stanislavski Studio, directed by Ronan Wilmot, of
Willy Russell's Stags and Hens. It is something of a contrast, this
degree of public aprciation, to the last few year's fortunes for the theatre,
which has tended to mark time since Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy's
dearture in 1983. However, the Focus has demonstrated a willingness to keep up its standards- one fhinks in this context, for instance, of Robert Lane's excellent set designs of the past few years, with their attention to the smallest, telling detail.
Also, the Focus has continued to introduce major new, and some older,
writers to Irish audiences. The Irish premier of Arthur Miller's Some Kind of Love Story was staged in 1986, the Pulitzer-prize winning Marsha Norman's Night Mother in 1984, and Athol Fugard's A Lesson from Aloes in 1984.
More importntly, perhaps, the work of the Stanislavski Studio continues, with a new generation of student actors begining to emerge now. The work of the Studio, may indeed, be its most sub tle effect on Irish theatre, an influence, as Tom Hickey puts it, "quite substan tially hidden in strands of Dublin theatre". When speaking of this,
Hickey was rich in his praise of it to me, as he had been to RTE in Moscow: "I owe it," he said of his training at the Studio, "an enormous debt ... in that the basic, strong dting I leaned was that
you (as an actor) are in the service of
19S4
A19=0 5
Ghwss ~E
. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .
AIkirlo md obe to 1s
Some id f Lov . i
The Nam trewwd) Ednl br& mes Hoae a Nice DayTaQN The Seahorse E.Mo
M fidwi:ng Of Mrt. : Laws Taken iMarn" hosie sb
Ewch h.. own Wd's is l,*suia
hrivate Wars tue b(4.we 0
D:i :of a I|,: wwm Ntola Ool(P .:u si u ;:: P.E - , : S T.. o: js.-, e).':. ':
1 9 6 6 ..' f- 0 ; ,: . f: :.-,, 'T: j,,'::; 0. . tagse d He -iU Rm--s -eiif15 00 H ' " '
THEATRE IRELAND/15
This content downloaded from 129.173.72.87 on Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:02:59 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Barry Lynch and Guy Carleton in Louvamn, 1915(1982)
the play. It's a matter of professional ethics."
Although it is early days yet, one can definitely identify two of the students in the present Studio, the American
Robbie Bowman, and John Colton from Derry, as significant talents to
watch for for the future. Where the theatre goes from here
remains very much to be seen. In 1985, the Arts Council in Dublin cut its sup port to the Focus by half, and although this has been restored to the previous level of ?20,000, financing especially for refurbishment, continues to be pro blem. But is that anything new in theatre? 0
Peter Thompson
Ena Mayand Frank McDonald in La Ronde
_~~
rx
Joan Bergin, Olwen Fouere, Johnny Murphy and Gabriel Byrne in A Month in the Country(I 1976)
