“I THINK the queen is a woman of taste,” joked Gate Theatre director Michael Colgan who was awarded an honorary OBE in Britain for his contribution to cultural relations between Britain and Ireland.
“To work closely with Harold Pinter, to bring Brian Friel to Edinburgh, these are labours of love. And then to be given an award for it, and in these times of bad news, for the Gate it’s a good news story.”
Commenting on the award, British ambassador Julian King paid tribute to Colgan’s “extraordinary relationship with leading playwrights, producers and directors, not only in Ireland but also in the United Kingdom”, and singled out his close ties with late Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter.
Colgan, now in his 27th year as Gate director, has staged four festivals of the playwright’s work, in 1994, 1997, 2001 and 2005, the last of which marked Pinter’s 75th birthday. “There’s a bit of sadness, because I think Harold [Pinter] would have been thrilled,” he said.
Colgan sees the award as recognition, not only for the theatre’s work with Pinter, but for the “traffic that we bring to England and we bring here from England”.
Born in Dublin in 1950, Colgan is known for his energy, passion for theatre and what Fintan O’Toole has described in this paper as “an excess of self-confidence”. He employed his legendary powers of persuasion to raise funds for the construction of a new wing of the Gate which opened last year, and includes a rehearsal room and a theatre lab.