Galway Advertiser 1996/1996_06_27/GA_27061996_E1_027.pdf 

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ENTERTAINMENT
G A L W A Y ' S M O S T C O M P R E H E N S I V E E N T E R T A I N M E N T G U I D E - E D I T E D B Y leff O ' C o n n e l l

" r i P o e Professional D ud r v d Theatre C ud be M d ol ae Outside D bi " u ln
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autiously, for fear I'd bump into something, and very quietly, in case the noise would draw attention to an interloper, I picked my way down the steps in the darkened Town Hall balcony and looked over on the brightly-lit stage below.
"Okay Ray, you've got a new entrance!" These words, addressed to Ray McBride, roll out of the darkness below the balcony, and the voice is, unmistakably, that of Garry Hynes, and we're in the final week of rehearsals for Druid's 21st Anniversary pro duction of Brian Friel's "The Loves of Cass McGuire'. As my eyes adjust to the darkness I begin to take in the details of the scene, starting with the amazing set (about which I'll comment no more except to say that it will take your breath away when you see it). Ray McBride, playing the character Pat Quinn, saunters back stage left and disappears out the door. Marie Mullen, as Cass McGuire, flops on a bed at the top of stage right. Meanwhile, Brien Bourke, propped on a chair just to the right of Marie, makes broad, sweeping move ments with hand as he captures the pose of the actress for an exhibition Tom Kenny is holding during the Arts Festival of Druid Theatre-inspired work by Brien and John Behan. The centre of all this activity, the hub around which the different spokes of this important and historic production rotate, is dressed in an unfussy black top and trousers, her fiercely intelligent eyes piercing the dark ness from beneath a cluster of tousled black curls. s Ray makes his new entrance, as Marie begins to deliver Friel's words, as Brien's eyes bob between the scene in front of him and the large expanse of paper on which he, lightening-like, inscribes shapes and movements, Garry Hynes defines the rhythm of the action, fitting yet another piece into the seamless whole that will be the play audiences will see when it opens on July 1 st for what will be only sixteen memorable per formances Abruptly, the cast breaks for lunch and I go downstairs to meet Garry for lunch. Garry Hynes communicates a degree of intensity that some people might find rather intimidating. She is legendary for not suffer ing fools, and in these final days before the play opens she is focused, to the exclusion of anything else, on reaching the exacting stan dards of performance and production she has always set herself. Twenty-one yean ago she and a group of actors and actresses - among them Mick Lally, Sean McGinley, and Marie Mullen set out to create a professional theatre com pany in the West of Ireland. Like most new ventures, it was a combination of enthusiasm and hard-headedness. and nobody - least of all Garry herself - ever imagined that twentyone later that small company of players would not only still be going but would have achieved so much. "So far from imagining that Druid would still be going twenty-one years later. I never thought we'd see one year!" Garry Hynes is a very private person and she also appears to have a healthy regard for the gods who watch over the activities of those mortals who aim at excellence. The Greeks, who invented theatre, had a word hubris - for what we would call the pride that precedes a fall. So when she is asked one of those allembracing questions that journalists in their ignorance delight in posing - what contribu tion does she think Druid has made to Irish theatre - she is, initially, almost dismissive in her reply. It's only as our conversation con tinues that her enthusiasm overtakes her nat ural reserve, and her face lights up with one of those disarming smiles that is all the more striking because it contrasts so sharply with the seriousness that normally characterises her manner. arry Hynes has been back as Artistic Director of Druid, after four years away from Galway, three of those years spent as Artistic Director of the Abbey, since October of last year. She also returns to Druid as an Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre in London, where she has received glowing reviews for her production of Martin McDonagh's superb debut play ,'The Beauty Queen of Leenane', and another new Irish play, 'Portia Coughlan', which she directed for the Abbey. Her decision to leave Druid in 1990 was, she says, very important both personally and for Druid. "I felt very strongly the need to move on and explore other things, and it was also very important to discover if Druid could continue without me and without the other original members of the company. I think that's been very definitely proven. Under Maeliosa Druid grew enormously, and discovered an excellent new playwright in Vincent Woods (editor: author of 'At the Black's Pig Dyke'). "I feel that I've grown considerably through my experiences away from Druid, and I think I have more now to contribute as a result." hat does the 21 st Anniversary of Druid mean to her? "Essentially, it's a mark ing-point, a milestone, and so it's entirely appropriate that we celebrate the success of a venture that started off in such a small way and has become established during that time." She is, however, quick to qualify this: "But how old or young we are doesn't really make all that much difference. What matters is what we're doing now. You're only as good as our last production, or our next produc tion! But anything that smacks of the kind of nostalgia - 'Oh, wasn't it wonderful what Druid was doing this or that' - I've no time for at all. If we're celebrating anything, it's that, twenty-one years later. Druid is still here, and we're looking towards tomorrow." She has always seen Druid's progress in terms of whatever production she happens to be working on at the moment. "When you're doing something, that's all you're concerned about. You're concerned on the day-to-day. I remember one day saying, 'My God, we're ten years old!' But I don't ever remember getting that feeling - 'Oh, we're going to hut

21 years
The third area where Druid has unquestion ably made a contribution is in the area of encouraging new writers and giving opportu nities to established writers for exploring new dimensions. Tom Murphy's 'Bailegangaire'. with Siobhan McKenna; MJ. Molloy's "The Wood of the Whispering'; Vincent Woods' 'At the Black Pig's Dyke'; Martin McDonagh's "The Beauty Queen of Leenane'; and now, with current writer in association, Billy Roche.

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for ten years or twenty years, or whatever. I do remember thinking, "The Fo'castle (edi tor: where Druid started out in Dominick Street) is too small, we need a bigger build ing, or we need better office space, or we need a bigger grant.' It's gone on from there." learly, Garry places a high value on the spontaneity that has always characterised Druid. "1 think what's most valuable about Druid today is the sense of a bunch of people getting together to put on a play. It's not about an 'institution' or an 'establishment'. It still comes down to a group of people pool ing their strengths to put on something, and there's a great freedom in that. "The worst thing in the world would be to take that spontaneity and freeze it. You have to actively fight against that. Change and flexiblity are crucially important if Druid is to remain true to its founding spirit. And as

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hated a play, something that just doesn't tend to happen elsewhere." Garry's face is set firmly facing the future, and one of the things she is keen to pursue is the European dimension of contemporary theatre. "There tends to be a certain claustro phobia about our theatrical outlook. I think it's terribly important that we realise in prac tice that we are a European nation. That's one of the reasons I was keen to bring in Simone Benmussa (who directed Druid's most recent production, 'The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs'), and Druid will continue to bring European theatrical people to Galway. "We've always insisted that we are not a 'regional' theatre company. We are a national company - in fact, it's bigger than that: we're an international company, and our audience if this doesn't sound too grandiose - is the world." o - and here comes the big sententious question I'd been waiting to put - what does Garry think is the major contribution Druid has made to Irish theatre? There is a long pause, and I sympathise because I can imagine those fate-challenging thoughts of hubris running through her head. But then comes the answer that makes asking the question worthwhile: "I think it's unarguable that Druid broke a great big moment in the Irish theatre by proving that a professional theatre could be made outside Dublin. It had not been done before. It had been tried, but it had failed and people did not believe it was possible. You could have semi-professional theatre, ama teur theatre of a good standard, but you couldn't make quality professional theatre outside the capital. That's a considerable achievement in itself." Druid as forerunner, then. And once the monopoly was broken, all over the country far as we're concerned, our aim is to be the the challenge was taken up by groups like best theatre company in the world! Obviously, that's a constant struggle, but it's Red Kettle in Waterford and a host of other fine companies that have made their own an ideal that you set in front of you." contributions to the present healthy state of Another unique aspect of Druid is that some of those same people who were there at Irish theatre. The other contribution she feels Druid has the beginning are still part of Druid's extend made lies in the area of such theatrical basics ed family. "When the company was younger, in the first ten years or so, it was possible for as ensemble playing, originality of approach, the possibility of new ideas. us to keep the company together. That's not "I think there was a sense that actually a practical anymore, so what you now have is a much loser definition of the Druid 'compa group of people coming together over a peri ny'. But I would say that there is a Druid od of time, within a specific situation, with a company in existence as much today as there very strong vision, can create a broad, popu was ten or fifteen years ago. lar theatre. To a large extent I think Druid redefined the notion of popular theatre in this "Mick Lally. for example, actually left the country, and that popular theatre does not full-time company in 1977, but Mick is as mean just what goes on in Dublin." much a company member now as he was The demonstration that this was true came then. It's the same with Marie and Sean, out of the tremendous response Druid has Maeliosa and myself and people like Anna always had when it goes on tour around the Manahan (who plays Mother in 'Cass country. Instead of sticking to the major cen McGuire'), who first appeared with Druid in 1987." . tres of population, she has an instinct that there was another audience out there that Galway itself is undoubtedly part of the Druid had to go out and meet. "And we did! magic of Druid. "Actors are always attracted The most memorable performances I can to where they think they may do good work. recall happened in places like Killaser, IRIS I think there's also a human scale to their Meain, Kihimagh. Skibbereen. and not the experience here. So many actors have com 'great' nights in London. That's where you mented on the fact that people on the streets make that magic contact with an audience will come up to them the day after a perfor mance and tell them that they either loved or that just drinks up what you give them.'*

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inally, to use an old tried and true 'saw', the 'proof of the pudding is in the eat ing', and here we touch on the most impor tant ingredient of any theatre company - the audience, without which no matter how bril liant you are, or think you are, the entire enterprise falls down on its face. Garry is enormously appreciative of the Galway audi ence, which has supported Druid in good times and bad, and which has also developed a sophistication that is directly connected to the quality of the theatrical experience it has been offered by the company. Garry feels a deep sense of satisfaction when she thinks of how Druid's first produc tion in the Town Hall Theatre encapsulates what is special about the company. "I think there are very few theatre companies who can open a new play by a new writer before a new audience in a new theatre and not have a seat unsold during the entire run. That's mar vellous, and for this reason: achievements that don't include the response of the audi ence are meaningless. Beyond a certain level, you cannot defend theatre, there just isn't theatre, without an appreciative audience."

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wenty-one years a-growing, Garry feels the company is poised on the threshold of a new and exciting era. "The future is like the past in one way, that is, to continue to present the best possible work we can do, and to play to as diverse an audience as we can, and continue to lake chances, to gamble. Because when we stop doing that, that's the day we might as well shut the doors. "I also don't want Druid and its audience to settle cosily with each other, and I think we have a big challenge in the future to work with a new, younger audience. And the best way of communicating with any audience is to put on the best possible theatre and ensure that the audience knows you're doing it for them." Garry Hynes will probably wince at this, but she is a remarkable person, bubbling over with something more than simply talent which I shall not name in case the jealous gods overhear me, who has made an enor mous contribution to Irish theatre over the past twenty-one years. She has made any number of Galwcgians. both living here and abroad, proud thai their city could produce such brilliance. Considering her honor of nostalgia, her clear-eyed focus on what's to come rather than what's past, her sharp intelligence, and her challenging, provocative imagination, what we are really called upon to celebrate this week and next is the exciting promise of the future UV combinanoMf I Garry Hyacs hat in store for us I