Theatre history – it’s a class act

Lifestyle The extensive archive collection at NUI Galway, much of which is available online, covers everything from Irish theatre to land-ownership and offers a unique insight into the past. Archivist Barry Houlihan, whose latest book demonstrates the links between theatre and social history, guides JUDY MURPHY through some of its riches.

The coffee stain on the bottom right-hand corner of a 1976 poster for Druid Theatre’s production of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days in the city’s Fo’castle Theatre is a clear indication that the people involved in that production 43 years ago never thought it would become part of history.

They were wrong.  The Fo’castle on Dominick Street is long gone but Druid has become a force in theatre nationally and internationally, with archives that offer a hugely valuable insight into the artistic and social history of Galway from the mid-1970s onwards.

The Happy Days poster and Druid’s other archives – posters, flyers, correspondence, photos, programmes, films of productions and much more – are housed in a temperature-controlled basement at NUI Galway’s Hardiman Library. It’s part of a massive archive which ranges “from vellum to the Cloud”, according to archivist and historian Dr Barry Houlihan, a man who can make the past come alive. And like most of NUIG’s archives, it can be accessed by anyone with a computer and internet connection.

NUIG’s archives cove politics, theatre, language, land-ownership, and Ireland’s Direct Provision Centre, offering a window on the past – and the present.

When it comes to theatre, the histories of the Gate, The Abbey, Druid, Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, Macnas Theatre company and An Taibhdhearc are just some of its treasures.

These have been mined for Barry’s latest book, which will be launched next Thursday, October 24, at NUIG by Dr Catríona Crowe, retired Head of Special Projects at the National Archives of Ireland.

Its theatrical topics include wages and working conditions, minute books from the Abbey Theatre’s early board meetings, the treatment of women in the industry, and the work and correspondence of playwright Thomas Kilroy, former English professor at the university.

While this is a book that will be read mostly by academics, the archives at NUIG are an incredible source of information on many aspects of Irish history – and it’s not just confined to Ireland.

A 1932 letter written by the then Abbey Theatre Tour Manager, Arthur Shields, during the company’s extensive tour of North America, describes a performance of a Lennox Robinson play (either The Far-Off Hills or The White-headed Boy) at a college in Tuskegee, Georgia.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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