Na hAisteori’s First Season 1923/24

Prelude at the Gaiety

The reformed Aisteorí had their first public showing at the Gaiety Theatre late July 1923, as part of Oireachtas week presentations.

On the first night there were performances of Hyde’s An Tincear agas and tSideog – The Tinker and the Fairy, and a translation by Fiachrach Eilgeach of Checkhov’s The Bear – An Bear. Tadhg O Scanaill and Muiris O Cathain played in both plays, with Nuala Ni Morain, and Brid Ni hEigertaigh taking the female roles respectively. Both plays were to feature as part of the Abbey Season later in the year.

An Bear played also the second night, this time with a play Bean An Mhilluinaí by O’Lochlainn. In her first reviewed performance Maire Ni hOisín made a “great success as the pleading wife” (Irish Times 25 July 1923), and her “nicely modulated accents” demonstrated the poetic qualities of the Irish Language (Irish Independent 25th July 1923).

Opening Performances – 12th November 1923 – Three Plays, by Ni Cinneide, Synge and Beaslai.

An Comhar’s opening night in the Abbey in November brought together Na hAisteori  for the presentation of a triptych of plays, a format that continued through the season;

• Duthchas – Heritage, a one act temperance melodrama, by Maire Ni Cinneide, first published in 1908;
• Uaignneas an Gleanna – The Shadow of the Glen, a controversial drama by J.M.Synge first performed in 1903, translated by Fiachrach Eilgeach; and
• Fear an Sgeilin Grinn – The Man with a Funny Little Story, a comedy by Piaras Beaslai, which had first been performed in January 1914 at the Gaelic League headquarters at 25 Rutland Square (Parnell Sq.).

The Connaught Toast – Jack B. Yeats

In Duthghas, Diarmuid has announced his engagement and his mother Máire is delighted. Máire, however, has a secret; unbeknownst to Diarmuid, his father was a raging alcoholic and died young as a result. Diarmuid himself has never touched a drop – his mother has seen to that. But when his Uncle urges him to take a drop of wine at the engagement party, Diamuid accepts a glass, then another glass, and another and rapidly starts to lose control.

Michael McLiammoir

Uagneas an Gleanna, In the Shadow of the Glen, a Synge Classic, was first performed at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, on the 8th October 1903. It shocked Dublin Audiences just as it was intended. It was condemned as ‘a slur on Irish womanhood’ by Arthur Griffith, later President, then a prominent nationalist journalist. Nora Burke, a young wife abandons her aged husband Dan for a younger Tramp, but not before her husband fakes his death to test her loyalty and finds her wanting. In the review in Fainne an Lae Maire Ni hOisin, who played Nora, was commended her for her fine singing. (Review by “Cloch Labhrais” in Fainne an Lae. 24 Samhain 1923).

Jack B Yeats

Fear an Sgeillín Grinn, was a comedy. Liam, an old man takes so long to tell the “funny story”, that his audience make efforts to leave before it ends. When he finally gets to the point of the punchline, the man who is the butt of the joke arrives and attacks him, and so story is never finished (Fainne an Lae 17 Samhain 1923)

Second Night of Performance; 18th of December 1923: Three Plays by Synge, Chekhov and Moliere

On the 18th December 1923, the Irish Independent reviewed the groups second night of plays;

• 

  Jack B Yeats

  An Muir – another translation of one of J.M Synge’s Plays, this time Riders to the Sea . The play is a tragedy which addresses a mother grief as she looses her last son to the sea. The play was again controversial on its first production for its alleged paganism. Though the Irish Times reviewer felt she had  misread the role when compared with Sarah Allgood in english language production, the Independent Maire ni Oisin was again commended for her musicality – “a guth, ceolmhar”.

• Cursai Cleamhnas – a translation of Chekhov’s The Proposal, a comedy in which a young man quarrels with a farmer over land, faints and wakes up to find himself engaged to the farmer’s daughter.

Medecin Malagre Lui by Moliere

• An Dochtuir Breige; a translation of Moliere’s Medicine Malagre Lui, another comedy, where a man impersonating a doctor is commissions to tend to a patient pretending to be ill. He turns out to be rather good at his job. (See also Fainne an Lae, Nollaig 22 December 1923)

Third Night of Performance; January 1924: Three Plays by Hyde, Ferguson, Gregory

The new year saw the the performance of a third set of three plays.

• 

  Douglas Hyde in An Cleamhnas

  An Cleamhnas by Douglas Hyde (first published 1903/1904), a play in which two lovers, Kate and Diarmuid, enlist the help of Kate’s mother Maire, in order to avoid Kate’s father’s plan to marry her off to the lazy and drunken son of his friend and crony;

• Cambeal na Coille Moire, a translation by O Foghludha of J.A. Fergusons play Campbell of Kilmhor. This was a historical drama set in the aftermath of Culloden (one of the plays originally produced at the Gaiety the previous July). In the play, Morag is induced to betray the whereabouts of Bonny Prince Charlie to save her sweetheart Dugald. Her sweetheart is killed nonetheless, and the information she offers proves false. Dugald had misled her to protect her should she have been questioned.

• 

  jack b yeats

  Dubhairtse Dabhairtse, a translation of Lady Gregory’s old favourite Spreading the News, a comedy of errors set at a village fair. A simple mistake, and the villagers willingness to assume the worst, only surpassed b the local magistrate, leads to trouble. . Here Maire, O’Cathain and O’Lochlann were reported to have been “masters of their parts”.

In newspaper reports of the plays, Tadg O Scannail, making good on initial promises, announced the groups intention to go to Cork for the 1924 Oireachtas, and other big towns (Fainne an Lae 1924 Eanair 19) and (Freemans Journal 15 January 1924)

Fourth Night of Performance: 11th February 1924: Plays by Corkery, Beaslai

Only two plays are records in the reviews for the fourth night of performances on the 11th February

• O Failbhe Mor, a translation of Daniel Corkery’s Clann Falvey (first performed in Cork in 1917 and published in 1920) by Sean Toibin; This was adjudged by one reviewer, though he did not fault the acting, a play that was as difficult to stage, gloomy and slow moving.
• Cluiche Cartai, by Piaras Beaslai – a drama where newly weds break up after a card game. The play was based on the variously named “Three weeks after marriage” of ‘What we must all come to‘ by Arthur Murphy, a play first performed at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in 1764. It saw its first production in Irish in 1914 at the Gaelic Leagues Hall and Headquarters, 25 Parnell Square,

CONNLA writing in the Freemans Journal was impressed. He asked “Where would you find a girl as natural as Maire Ni Oisin“. He reported that the Theatre was full, and that the Aisteori, were under scrutiny, hard scrutiny, but more than met the critics for their acting (Freemans Journal 21.02.1924). See also Freemans Journal 12th of February 1924 and also Irish Times 12 February 1924 cited in O’Casey Years).

By now a certain reputation had been achieved. In a extended article in Fainne an Lae, entitled Na hAisteoiri, Actors and Performances were reviewed positively, and Gearoid O’Lochlainn and Tadg O Scannail were quoted. The commentator also picked out Maire for special praise, making the comment “If Shaw wrote in Irish she could really get her teeth into it” – (Fainne an Lae 1 March 1924 p.3 )

Fifth Night of Performances: March 1924: Dix, Chekhov, Moineaux

On 11th March 1924 in the Irish Independent reviewed the fifth tryptych of plays;

• Crua Cas na mBaitsileiri, a play about two bachelors who learn a little something surprising about love from their ancient aunt. The play was translated from the German by Una Dix.
• An Bear – The Bear by Anton Chechov, translated by O Foghludha. Here a young widow declares herself effectively dead, but is stirred back to life by the “blustering, salty-tongued Gregory”, who despite her best efforts, she cannot resist .
• Beirt na Bodaire Breige, a translation by O Foghluda of Les Deux Sourds by Jules Moineaux – of a comedy about a deaf man who wishes to marry his daughter to another deaf man. The play was first performed in French 1866 at Theatres de Varietes, Paris, and in Irish by na h-Aisteori on 12 April 1913, again at the Gaelic League Hall at 25 Rutland Sq.

On this occasion the audience was said to have “better filled house than any former performance” (Irish Times cited in O’Casey Years). There was a review of 15th March in Fainne an Lae which commended the Actors. “Special Praise” was given given to Maire and Nora Ni Cathasaigh for their performances in the Beirt na Bodaire Breige (Irish Independent 11.3.1924)

Sixth Night of Performances – April 1924 – Hyde, Colquhoun, Mc Manus

The Abbey was crowded again for the sixth evening of performances (Irish Times 8th April 1924). This time the plays were

• An Tincear agus an tSidheog – The Tinker and the Fairy by Douglas Hyde, an old favorite, played in the Gaeity the previous July. This time Maire Ni Oisin played the shapeshifting fairy to O’Lochlainn’s Tinker, transformed by a kiss.

• Sinéad, the second play was a translation into the “racy and vigourous Irish of Fiachra Eilgeach” of Jean by Donald Colquhoun. The Play first performed at the Glasgow Rep is set in working class Lanarkshire. Here O Cathain and O Scannaill, play father and son where a shock revelation concerning the maid servant leads to the father’s death.
• Eisirghe Donncha the third and final piece was a translation by O Siocfraidha of Seumas MacManuses Resurrection of Dinny O’Dowd. Dinny O Scanaill retruns from America to be mistaken as his own ghost; a farce ensues that “made the house laugh itself sore”

For these plays we have the benefic of two conflicting reviews. According to CONNLA writing in the Freemans Journal Maire did beautifully in the first play; undertaking a wonderful and heartfelt transformation from old woman to fairy.

Rinne Maire go h-Aluinn ar fad; agus ba cam briste chnapanach i mar shean sidheog, b’iontach an tathru a thainig uirthi agus b’oigeanta aerach a thug si leithe an chroideamhlacht agus an tathas nuair a fuair si a hoige agus fad saol that n-ais.
(Freemans Journal 8th April 1924)

The Irish Times felt however that Maire was “somewhat badly cast” and “that she was better suited to such parts as those in which she excelled at former Gaelic Performances” (Irish Times 8.4.1924)

CONNLA, reviewing the third play in the Freemans Journal (8th April 1924), was pondered cryptically “Nil fhios agam an raibh na cailini tuaithe ro-cosamhail le daoine a thogfai sa Chathair” – “I don’t know whether the country girl was too similar to the city girl”. The Irish Times however noted that Maire was better cast in this piecs, and had a” congenial part singing a folk sone at a country dance – in a scene redolent of the Irish Countryside”.

Planning the Second Season

At this point, by mid-April An Comhar were now confident enough to plan and agree their second season, at their annual Meeting. Here the restated three basic objectives, (1) to save irish in the gaeltacht (Irish Speaking Areas) , bring it to the gallteacht (English Speaking Areas) (2) to bring the joy and celebration of a native literature to the people and not lecture them, and (3) to encourage writers to participate in the development of this literature (14.04.1904 Freeman’s Journal) (19th April in Fainne an Lae) –

Seventh Night of Performances – 5th May 1924 – Plays by Snitzler, Hyde, O’Scannail,

End of Season Performances were presented on 5th May, An Comhar’s 7th evening of plays. Both the Freemans Journal and Irish Times reported on the final triptych of plays on the 6th May 1924;

• An Cruinn Chinnuinach – The Fatal Question a translation of Arthur Snitzlers Anatol (1893) by Gearoid O’Lochlann. Her a playboy attempt to test of his wife’s fidelity by asking questions under hypnosis. Here Maire played Hilda, wife to Gearoid O’Lochlainn’s Anatol. Muiris O’Cathain played Anatol’s friend Max. The Irish Times reviewer felt that Maire acted “with the fine spice of character which this player can impact to a role that suits her vein” (Irish Times 6th May 1924)
• An Posadh, is another of of Hydes classic plays. Here a desparately poor newly wed couple are visited by Raftery the poet, who returns their kindness.
• An Eirghe Anairde by Tadhg O Scannaill was an altogether more modern play – where two bank clerks try to woo a farmer’s daughters. They are treated scornfully by the farmer’s aged mother who speaks no english. Here Maire played one of the Daughters with Nora Ni Cathasiagh. Tadhg O’Scannaill the old man, Maire Ni Cinneide his wife. This piece was later reviewed in some detail by Piaras Beaslai in the Freemans Journal (24/5/1923)

Post Script – At the Oireachtas – May 1934 – Cork Opera House

As promised, An Comhar travelled to play in the Cork Opera House in May ( Irish Examiner 26/6/1924 bringing three plays to Ireland second city. This can be counted the promised 8th Night of Performances, and rounded of a successful season.

Three plays previously performed in Dublin were chosen

• Cra Cas Na mBaitseleiri,
• Uagnais an Gleanna, and
• An Sgeillin Grinn.

Here, given she was playing to a Munster audience, one reviewer somewhat controversially alleged that Maire (in Uaigneas) had demonstrated that “the young Lady of Connacht had a better voice for stage work than the Munster Girl”. (Freemans Journal 30th of the 6th 1924)

Cork Opera House