`The Plough and the Stars," the last play to be produced on the stage of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, before it was burned down early yesterday morning, was presented in the adjoining Peacock Theatre last night while the wreckage in the charred building still smouldered.
The play was seen by only 102 persons - the Peacock's "capacity" audience. Messages from actors, playwrights and producers in Ireland and many other countries yesterday expressed the hope that from the ruins of the Abbey Theatre a new national theatre would grow.
Outside the theatre I met Geoffrey Golden, one of the company. He held in his hand half of an illuminated parchment, bearing the names of every Abbey actor and playwright, which he had himself inscribed. Half of it had been burned as he pulled it from the wall of his dressingroom several hours before.
Among the blackened rafters in the scene dock at the back of the theatre, Bill Foley, who plays Captain Brennan in the present production of O'Casey's "Plough and the Stars," saw his make-up box. Protected by a drawer, it has survived the flames and the fall of the floor of the dressingrooms. Inside it he found grease-paint which had not melted.
These were just two of the relics which were recovered from the fire which destroyed thousands of pounds worth of irreplaceable properties; costumes for such famous plays as Synge's "Playboy of the Western World," and a large amount of property belonging to actors and actresses.
The Irish Times, July 19th, 1951.