FROM THE ARCHIVES:Some three years after its foundation, one of the directors of Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe explained the rationale behind the theatre and its experiences. – JOE JOYCE
THE OBJECTS and progress of the theatre were described to me in an interview by Mrs. Dillon. “It was started as an experiment,” she said, “to see if we could encourage people to write plays in Irish. So far, it has not had much effect in that way, but something is being achieved. We are gathering around us students from the university, who are getting the dramatic idea.
“We rely largely on students for our actors, as very often the native speakers can neither read nor write. They are also less enthusiastic about the language.
“In a native-speaking town you do not find the same propaganda spirit about Irish as in a town where they are trying to cultivate it.”
Mrs. Dillon added that, though there was difficulty in obtaining actors at one time, they were now able to get together a cast of about forty, if required. Some of the actors are members of the Irish-speaking battalion of the Free State Army, which is stationed at Galway.
“Several of our principal actors,” added Mrs. Dillon, “had never seen a play before this theatre began.”
With regard to the selection of plays, Mrs. Dillon remarked there was a certain amount of native drama, but it was very small and unsuitable. To start a dramatic tradition it was necessary to get plays in other languages and translate them, as was done by the early English theatre.
"Then came the question," she said, "of what kind of plays we were to translate. There were plenty of Irish peasant plays which could be translated easily, but it was found that these could not be 'got across' to the audience so well as other plays which were more difficult to translate. It was worth while to take the difficult ones. " Arms and the Manwas one of the greatest successes last season, but from the box office point of view the best of all was Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. The people understood the satire and the manners – in fact, they took to it as if it had been a representation of their own lives. We put a ballet into the play, and they enjoyed that. Anything by Molière will go down well here.
“They do not want impressionistic stuff, and they cannot understand ‘short cuts’ in technique; but all the old-fashioned methods, such as ‘stage asides’, can be used.
Artistically, though not intellectually, our people are a hundred years behind the rest of Europe, simply for lack of training; but it may be that in fifty years, or, perhaps twenty-five years, we shall draw level.”
Mrs. Dillon pointed out that the theatre was supported chiefly by a “red petticoat” crowd, as well as by a number of children, the better educated people having only recently become interested. Performances take place in a hall having a seating capacity of three hundred and, despite the strong counter-attraction of the cinemas, there are large audiences.
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