‘State of Chassis’ erupts at Peacock Theatre

It looks like a scene from a play. In fact it is a scene from a play – plus a little extra something that wasn't anticipated by the playwrights.

The front-page news story which accompanied our photograph on September 17th, 1970 begins: "The premiere of A State of Chassis, a political-polemical satirical revue by John D Stewart, Tomás MacAnna and Eugene Watters, at Dublin's Peacock Theatre, was interrupted for about five minutes last night by Mr Eamonn McCann, chairman of the Derry Labour Party."

Now, we’ve all been to plays where we long to stand up and shout “Stop”. On this occasion, however, the objection was political rather than strictly theatrical. Eamonn McCann found the revue’s portrayal of the situation in the North to be “abysmally ignorant”, taking particular exception to its caricature of Bernadette Devlin.

The audience appears to be more bemused than distressed by his protest. Perhaps they think it’s part of the onstage action. Apparently one woman called out: “The only solution is non-violence.” To which McCann’s immortal reply was: “Non-violence my arse.”

On McCann’s left, clutching his declaiming arm but otherwise looking remarkably unruffled by the disruption to his narrative, is the revue co-author MacAnna. He, too, engaged in a spot of impromptu dialogue with the protester, which is reproduced in the article as follows:

Mr McCann: “Anyone who thinks that the events in Northern Ireland are a matter of laughter is a hypocrite.”

Mr McAnna: (to the audience): “All we can say is to echo the words of Byron: ‘If we laugh at any mortal thing, it is that we may not weep.’”

All we can say is that anybody who paid 17s and 6d for their ticket to the Peacock that night got their money’s worth – and then some.

Arminta Wallace