Druid: celebrating in the present tense

LAURELS, it seems, are not for resting on. Druid may be 21 this year, but Garry Hynes won't be satisfied with reflecting on the former glories of her company's precocious youth. She co founded Druid with Mick Lally and Marie Mullen in 1975, radically changing the shape of our theatrical world in the process, but it is the shape of the future that engages her now.

Yes, we're thrilled, we're going to celebrate with a big party we re very proud of everything we did," she says quickly, almost as though to get the words out of the way. Then she slows up "But the past is ... gone. The central issue is that we must move on.

Politic words, you could be forgiven for thinking, from a director who has returned to her old company, and took some flak last year for staging only two new productions, pleading financial stringency. Face to face, however, the words ring true. On a damp January night in Galway, in the spartan attic rehearsal room where most of Druid's glories were first forged, Garry Hynes once again radiates a dynamic energy that has not always been apparent over the last few years. And this despite the loss of several days' rehearsal due to an actor's illness and consequent recasting.

Utterly concentrated, yet somehow simultaneously relaxed and almost skittish, she successfully coaxes new nuances from her cast.

They are rehearsing Martin McDonagh's new play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane. "Do it one more time, just for me, do it without any pause, try it on for size," she tells Torn Murphy, and a performance grows before our eyes.

Later, talking about the programme she has put in place for this anniversary year, the same blend of fire and precision is evident. The choice of Beauty Queen to open that programme, which will also he the formal opening of Galway's long overdue municipal theatre the Town Hall, is a daring risk and therefore the sort of stimulus on which Hynes thrives.

"Of course it's a big gamble, but isn't that precisely the gamble we re here to take? On the face of it shouldn't open with a new play by a new writer, but actually it's the other way around doing a costume drama or an old Druid hit is precisely what we should not be doing."

The play is certainly a most unlikely creature. Martin McDonagh is a young London Irish writer, who has had several scripts read by Druid since Hynes returned to the company IS months ago. Beauty Queen is set entirely in an isolated kitchen in Connemara, complete with pictures of the Pope and John F. Kennedy. It appears to tell a familiar enough tale of generational conflict and sexual repression. Quite fortuitously McDonagh had never seen a Druid show when he wrote the play there are several other themes hauntingly reminiscent of the company's repertoire.

But the character development, style and denouement are almost shockingly fresh. " Where is this guy coming out off I wondered when I read it first," says Hynes. "He seems to be coming from Beckett, Synge, John B. Keane and Tarantino Without prejudging the production, it is the most exciting and difficult script this writer has seen in years.

Hynes relishes the impact she feels the production will make in the new theatre. "The Town Hall is a lovely civic space, with proscenium arch, suited to formal theatre. But you can also turn that round, putting in something very informal, using the tension between the location and the play in an almost political way." For the first few moments, she feels, the audience will feel " Oh lovely, this is a Druid play, we know where we are. And then .....

AND then, indeed. If the gamble pays off, it will mark a memorable opening to a year in which there should be much to celebrate, in the present tense. Firstly, there is the new theatre itself, and the Black Box (a flexible venue with fixed stage area), due to come on stream in May. Hynes describes the latter as "the kind of venue I, and Druid, have always really wanted." From a poverty of venues, however imaginatively used, Galway suddenly finds itself with a (relative) embarrassment of riches.

"I'd like to think that Druid now has a position as luxurious as the Abbey's, where we can look at a play and say will we do it in the Peacock or on the main stage?, though it's not quite the same thing. But the whole thing will be to build a positive relationship with the theatre." At the moment nothing is decided, except that Druid's a dual birthday production a revival of Brian Friel's she Loves of Cass Maguire will open on July 2nd in the Town Hall. The possibilities of transferring Druid successful productions from the company's Chapel Lane home or vice versa have still to be worked out, and will depend on Town Hall manager Michael Diskin's own long term programming.

Meanwhile, the small but wonderously adaptable Chapel Lane venue will remain Druid's home, thanks to the admirable generosity of McDonogh's Ltd, which owns it. "The heartbeat of Druid is in Chapel Lane, says Hynes firmly. "Everything radiates from there.

And there will be plenty of radiation. We need to get but, and breathe different air at different times," says Hynes. The first item on that agenda is a co production deal with the Royal Court, through which Beauty Queen is already booked to open in London in its Theatre Upstairs in March. Though Druid has often toured internationally in the past, including several visits to London, this is the first time a Druid show has had a deal which is not dependent on its reception here.

"We are very happy in that it gives us direct and immediate access to the premier stage in the UK for new work," Hynes says.

Shortly afterwards, an eminent French director will arrive in Galway to direct a show at Chapel Lane. Hynes first saw the work of Simone Benmussa 20 years ago. She was directing The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs her own adaptation of George Moore's story about a waiter who is a woman trapped in a man's role.

Hynes was deeply impressed by "this French director taking Irish material and turning into this incredible piece of theatre. I thought it would be wonderfully interesting to have this woman come over and direct it in its place of original inspiration.

Druid has been a pioneer of what the company christened the URT (unusual rural tour), steadily adding venues to the established circuit whenever they took shows on the road. Though she won't elaborate on the details, Hynes says she is now in consultation with the Arts Council to see how new Irish initiatives, "both artistic and strategic", might be taken this year.

Developing more new work with also be a priority, and Druid has an impressive list of writers currently under commission. They include Billy Roche (Writer in Association), Marina Carr, Niall Williams, Frank Deasy, Martin McDonagh and Frank McGuinness, who is working on a translation of Jean Genet's The Balcony. The company is also informally in close touch with two of the writers who have provided some of its most memorable work, Tom Murphy and Vincent Woods. Characteristically holding her cards close to her chest, Hynes says it is too early to say which of these projects is likely to come on stream first.

ONE major Irish writer whose work has not been closely associated with Druid, or with Garry Hynes, is Brian Friel. However, The Loves of Cass Maguire was the very first play Hynes ever directed, with a 19 year old Marie Mullen in the lead role at UCD Dramsoc. A couple of years later, the play was part of Druid's first programme, along with Playboy and Kevin Laffan's It's a Two Foot Six Inches Above the Ground World.

Friel, it seems, has not released the rights of Cass Maguire for several years, but Hynes called him to ask for them six months ago, and two weeks later he agreed.

"I'm utterly thrilled," she says. "Cass is something I've longed to do again."

Programming for the six months following this production (which will coincide with a monster birthday party, with former Druid actors, crew, writers and directors returning from the four corners of the Earth) is still to be decided. Hynes says she "absolutely wants Druid to he involved" in the Galway Arts Festival, but that the level of activity depends on finances

She firmly defends the position that, as theatre companies professionalise, what they do will cost more, and that they may therefore have to do less. "It is the quality not the quantity that counts," she says. She feels it may be no harm for young companies to do low budget shows that lets the new blood come up. But people over 30 should get a decent living."

She acknowledges that the period in the late 1980s, before she left Druid for the Abbey, was an unhappy and turbulent" one. She credits her successor, Maeliosa Stafford with, among other achievements, establishing that Druid could not only survive but could flourish without her.

That is very unusual for a small company closely identified with one person. It was absolutely necessary, for myself and the company, that I left when I did. It was not necessary for me to come back, and I approached the new job with trepidation, but I'm much happier than I thought I would be."

That much is evident, perhaps because her brief allows her to work frequently with other companies, but also because she is no longer burdened with a sense of sole responsibility for Druid. "There is not even a question but that the company will continue without me now, " she says gratefully. But how long will she stay this time?

"I have a three year contract, and I'm in my second year. Beyond that, I cannot tell you at all. We'll see . .