Denis McSweeney: Tales of Angela Lansbury and a golden era for Cork theatre
Ide and Denis McSweeney. Picture: Jim Coughlan
For Cork theatre stalwart Denis McSweeney, the only right date to retire from his position as chair of the Everyman was November 2 just gone – 50th anniversary of the Everyman Theatre Company opening in Fr Matthew Hall. And 50th anniversary of McSweeney’s own debut on the Everyman stage.
The late Angela Lansbury was there that 1972 November night, launching the brave new venture of Everyman opening in its first home. McSweeney remembers press photos showing her “elegantly attired”, the excitement of that iconic evening.
“This great personality was in front of the curtain behind which we were standing, a butterfly-nervous caste of some of Cork theatre’s greats – Mick McCarthy, Brian Bolingbroke, Elaine Stevens, Irene Comerford, Heather Underwood, Ger Lehane, and a very young debutant with Everyman, yours truly.”
The play was George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man. First director Harry Bogan had chosen McSweeney for some minor parts.
“I was the Russian officer in the opening scene pursuing the Chocolate Soldier fleeing the battlefield rout.”
That scene, set in a “young lady’s bedchamber”, saw McSweeney make his entrance through French windows in full pre-WWI dress uniform of a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, complete with greatcoat, magnificent helmet and Wilkinson’s dress sword.
“I didn’t have a lot to say but I looked fabulous.”
He has photos of that production, but regretfully none of himself in that splendid costume – the genuine article, sourced just nights earlier from a gentleman’s bedroom in a three-storey house on the Blackrock Road.
Born “at the top of Gurranabraher” and a retired marketing director of Ford Ireland, McSweeney recalls the years from the late 1960s through to the ‘80s as a golden age for Cork’s amateur dramatic scene.
“The only professional theatre was visiting theatre. Or panto might bring a principal from Dublin, London, Bristol, to give a bit of extra punch.”
By “amateur”, he means in the sense of not being paid.
“The standard was high. We took on what seemed impossible – and played our way through the ‘70s and ‘80s, undaunted by the scope of the works we attempted.”
Directed by some of the lions of Cork theatre – Dan Donovan, John O’Shea, Mick McCarthy – McSweeney was cast in many memorable productions: A Man for All Seasons, The Silver Tassie, The Death and Resurrection of Mr Roche, A Family Reunion, A Flea in Her Ear, The Front Page, Mr Joyce is Leaving Paris.
He recalls the electricity going out during the staging of A Man for All Seasons.
“It was a grand production, beautifully costumed, magnificently staged and lit – we had the makings of a wonderful production.
“And then: late in the first week, an electricity strike. That’d have been curtains for a normal theatre. We were not a normal theatre."
"We got two gas-powered Tilley lamps that we mounted in the side aisles. And instead of electric light, we had this glow-ey gaslight – the Tower of London looked extraordinarily genuine. These gas-powered scenes went on for a few nights. It’s a standout memory for me.”
That amateur phase of Everyman’s history is to be treasured, says McSweeney.
“But it belongs to yesterday – it cannot be reclaimed.”
Soon after the Everyman’s 1997 move to MacCurtain Street, he accepted a governance role on the board.
“By then it had evolved into a professional company with state support and appropriate lines of accountability.”
In the last few decades, it has grown in scope, ambition and reputation, due in no small part, he says, to executive and artistic directors: Pat Talbot, Michael Barker Caven, Eimear O’Herlihy, Sean Kelly, Julie Kelleher and Sophie Motley.
“Everyman is now a significant national venue for theatre, premiering substantial new works, commissioning new theatre and training artists and professional in their craft.”
But recovery from Covid – around attendance and public consciousness – remains a challenge.
“Covid did a lot of damage to people’s confidence going out – even remembering to go out. You had couples who’d come to the theatre five, eight times a year. Those frequencies aren’t back yet.”
McSweeney can’t imagine what life would have been without theatre. He met wife Íde in 1972.
“I played the lead in the Scottish play – she was one of the witches. She has been double-troubling, boil-and-bubbling me ever since! She was and still is very gentle and shy – attractive characteristics especially for a loud, outgoing fellow like me.”
His appeal to all of us?
“Please get involved in theatre, music, the fine arts. You don’t have to walk across a stage. You can be a volunteer, an adviser if you’ve legal, commercial or artistic skills.”
Because, he says, “there’s a scene that exists beyond the PC or tablet screen, beyond market share, bond spreads or technology breakthroughs. It lights our lives and gives them meaning”.
