DIRECTOR AND playwright Tomás Mac Anna’s long life was defined by his love of theatre, so it was fitting that his funeral Mass yesterday was marked by the same theme.
At the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Bray, Co Wicklow, mourners were played into the church by harpist Madeleine Doherty's rendition of the tune, Mary of the Curling Hair. It was chosen because lines from this ballad were sung in Mac Anna's most famous production, that of Borstal Boy, which played on Broadway and won a Tony Award for best play on Broadway in 1970.
Chief mourners were Mac Anna’s widow, Caroline; their five children, Ferdia, Fiona, Niall, Naoise and Darina; his brother Brendan; in-laws James Hickey and Kate Holmquist; and five grandchildren, Lara, Jack, Sienna, Bessa and Finn.
Even the chief celebrant at the Mass, Father Tom Dooley, had an anecdote about the theatre. "As clerical students, we were forbidden to attend live performances," he told the congregation. It was a time when Mac Anna was directing pantomime at the Abbey, and he invited the students along to see the dress rehearsals instead, which he reassured them "didn't count", since the run hadn't started yet. "That's how I got my love of the theatre, especially the Abbey." Grandson Jack Hickey read an except from Prospero's famous speech in Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air . . . We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep." During the Prayers of the Faithful, the current director of the Abbey, Fiach Mac Conghail, read a prayer for the Irish theatre community, that they would "carry on Tomás's passion, his love of theatre and love of language". The offertry gifts brought up by Mac Anna's two grandsons were their grandfather's edition of Sean O'Casey's plays, and a bronze plaque depicting Queen Maeve and her wolfhound; the symbol of the Abbey Theatre. His daughter Darina brought up a soft brown "Russian hat", which her father only wore on special occasions.
The tributes at the conclusion of the Mass were given by Tomás Mac Anna’s daughter Fiona, and son Ferdia.
Fiona recalled a driven father capable of calmly multi-tasking to the extent that “he’d have a cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth, be talking non-stop, directing a play, and drinking tea – all without dislodging a single flake from his cigarette.”
Ferdia spoke of the “long love story” between his father and mother, and of growing up in a “bohemian household” with a father “who was a different kind of dad. One who had a pony-tail, wore waistcoats, and liked Spike Milligan.”
He concluded his tribute by inviting the congregation, whom he described as “all members of Tomás’s large bohemian family” to join with him in giving his father one “last curtain call” with a round of applause.
Also among the mourners were many representatives of the theatre community.
They included Garry Hynes, Patrick Mason and Ben Barnes, all former directors of the Abbey; playwrights Tom Murphy, Tom Kilroy and Bernard Farrell; actors Niall Tóibín, Stephen Rea, Eamonn Morrissey, Máire Ní Ghráinne, Barry McGovern, Tom Hickey, Pat Laffan and Stephen Brennan; Pat Moylan, Arts Council chairman; John O’Shea of Goal; artist Robert Ballagh; former High Court judge Bryan MacMahon; writer Ulick O’Connor; radio producer Séamus Hosey of RTÉ; and director of the Gaiety School of Acting Patrick Sutton. President McAleese was represented by Capt Murt Larkin.
