Remarks at The Donal McCann Theatre
Terenure College, 7 May 2013
Is mian liom buíochas a ghlacadh leis an tSiúr Marian agus le Robbie Murphy (Captaen na Scoile) as a bhfáilte chineálta agus as mé a chur i láthair. Is mian liom, freisin, buíochas a ghlacadh le Graham Whelan, ó Chumann na nIardhaltaí as an gcuireadh a bheith i láthair anseo le haghaidh oscailt fhoirmeálta Amharclann Dónal McCann.
[I wish to thank Sister Marian and Robbie Murphy (School Captain) for their kind words of welcome and introduction. I also wish to thank Graham Whelan of the Past Pupils Union for the invitation to be present for the formal opening of the Donal McCann theatre.]
Today is Donal’s birthday – he would be 70 – and I can think of no better celebration than the gathering here today in Terenure College. I am honoured to be a part of it.
I am also delighted that a number of Donal’s fellow actors and former alumni of this College are with us. Donal would be very pleased that his distinguished peers are here to share the memories and the celebration. From the performance we saw earlier, it is evident that the thespian ethos which inspired Donal, and many other former alumni, continues to thrive in the College.
Terenure College has served the boys and young men of Terenue and Dublin for some six generations now. Each year, its corridors have echoed to the sounds of their footsteps. Its classes have challenged them to develop their minds and find their voices. And its teachers have encouraged them to pursue their ambitions.
Each year, they have helped their pupils recognise the unique potential that lies within each of them. More, they have given them the means to realise that potential in the world around them, and the life ahead of them.
But the strength of any great institution also lies in its ability to impart certain shared values to those it serves. Values that all who pass through its doors, all who walk through its hallways, will carry with them into adult life, and society in general.
Founded as the College is upon the traditions of the Carmelite Order, many of these naturally concern religious and spiritual formation. However, the College has always concerned itself with the formulation of values important for the self in society – integrity, fairness, adaptability, solidarity, creativity and a positive attitude to work and to life.
The teacher is, in a sense, an architect of the mind and heart. He or she tries to share with students those principles and ideals that assist in forming the basis of a good life. Ideals that are also called upon to offer consolation and hope when life disappoints, as it occasionally will.
But every young person is different while sharing much of what has been inherited as influences. What may be a source of influence for one boy, may be less appropriate, or not at all, for the next. And some may find a source of ethical principles or a sense of human solidarity better in the field of competitive play, than in the field of literary composition – or more usually happens in a combination of both.
So it is important that the teacher must fit his or her design to the student, and not the other way around. Shakespeare’s words in Henry IV Pt 2 might have addressed this as well as the world of economics:
When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection;
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then but draw anew the model
In fewer offices, or at last desist
To build at all?
(Henry IV Act 1, Sc. 3, Line 42)
It is appropriate to quote William Shakespeare here, today. After all, he’s often honoured as the greatest playwright in the English language and Donal engaged with his work from a young age. And today, we celebrate the opening of this new building: a theatre named to honour a man once described as the greatest actor in the English language.
I’ve drawn quite an architectural theme – and as many of you know, Donal actually studied that discipline for a time and he had the great figt of being a fine artist. But that was not where his heart, or his talent lay; at least, not in that kind of architecture.
His was an art form that excels at the raising, unfolding and levelling of whole lives – whole histories – whole worlds – in the span of an hour or two. Where the revelation of a desperate, shattering truth can be made with the merest, flickering pause between a word, a gesture and a glance. For more than an interpretation the living performance of Donal was a truth brought to life on the stage and in the life.
Theatre was Donal’s art form and his life. And he was a master of it.
I had the honour of delivering the eulogy at Donal’s funeral. That day, as I stood at his graveside, it seemed clear as daylight that his genius was in the way he eliminated everything redundant – anything that might impede the manifestation of the beautiful, of the profound, of the sublime.
The truth is that the radical, daring simplicity that gave such force to his stage presence is – and likely always will be – a rare quality.
Its power applies in many realms of human creativity. We admire economy of words in a work of literature. We admire economy of movement in a dancer.
Another titan of another art form, Frank Lloyd Wright, has observed that:
“As we live and as we are, Simplicity – with a capital “S” – is difficult to comprehend nowadays. We are no longer truly simple. We no longer live in simple terms or places. Life is a more complex struggle now.
It is now valiant to be simple: a courageous thing to even want to be simple. It is a spiritual thing to comprehend what simplicity means.” (The Natural House)
And Donal realized that all of this was achieved with others in one of the greatest, most challenging forms of co-operation and skill.
Here, in Terenure College, was where Donal first took his steps in his craft. In 1957, he played Cordelia in a production of King Lear. His work drew praise from Gabriel Fallon, the Irish Press theatre critic and, looking back, one almost sees Donal’s life on stage foreshadowed in Cordelia’s words, when she says to her father that:
“[…]I want that glib and oily art
To speak and purpose not, since what I well intend,
I’ll do’t before I speak”It was not Donal’s style to speak and purpose not. Nothing about him was glib, or oily. His style was the simplicity of man and role united, as he embodied on stage the stark revelations of the human spirit. It was a style of such brevity and power that he could evoke tears even in his fellow actors.
And it was the honesty of his performance that was so mesmerizing. Gabriel Byrne described Donal as “A man who held the dark mirror of truth up to his soul and fearlessly allowed us to examine it”.
Each of us will cherish our own memories of the man and his art. Some will debate which was his finest stage performance – was it in the Faith Healer by Brian Friel, was it as O’Casey’s Fluther or Captain Boyle, was it in Sebastian Barry’s Steward of Christendom?
Regretably, none of the students here today had the opportunity to see any of these magnificent performances. Happily, they can still see Donal’s wonderful work on screen – especially his magnificent role as Gabriel Conroy in John Huston’s film adaptation of The Dead by James Joyce.
Donal’s loss at such an early age – he was only 56 – was a severe blow to Irish theatre. Even now, amongst directors, actors and playwrights of a certain age, you hear them still: the stories, the anecdotes and the memories.
One individual* – now in a position of prominence in the Irish theatre sector – recalls how fortunate he was to work with Donal. How privileged as a young actor he was, to have had the chance to watch him work up close.
His first impression, admittedly, was of a slightly odd, distant character. But he quickly realised the reason for this. You see, for all his power and magnetism as an actor, Donal McCann was actually quite a shy man.
Donal had the rather disconcerting habit of commenting on this young man’s performance while onstage. If he felt the scene demanded it, he wasn’t afraid to whisper a “Too slow – hurry up!” But even then, the younger man understood the true generosity behind this. How it was the outstretched hand of one actor helping another to find his craft.
Too slow…hurry up!
I don’t think there’s anywhere better to realize the bitter-sweet wisdom of those words than a college. How quickly a life begins, grows to maturity, and passes away. I am sure the teachers of Terenure College understand this transience all too well. How the faces and the years slip by.
Theatre is a great place to remind one-self of the need to seize the day. Theatre is a kind of sacred place; where time itself is stilled as the full tragedy and triumph of a life can unfold in front of us; where all our schooling, innate assumptions and fine ideals can be challenged by the drama of a very different reality, presented from a different perspective and told in a different voice.
Agus fós, nuair a lastar na soilse, bíonn sé mar a bheifeá ag dúiseacht. Agus cuimhnimid go bhfuil am fós againn. Nach bhfuil feicthe againn ach cuimhne den todhchaí is féidir a bheith againn. Gur féidir linn foghlaim, agus as an bhfoghlaim sin gur féidir linn cúrsa ár saoil a athrú. Is é sin, gan amhras, cuspóir oideachais ar bith ar fiú an t-ainm é agus ar maith an airí ar na saolta seo é.
[And yet when the lights come up, it’s like waking up. And we remember we still have time. That we have only watched the memory of a possible future. That we can learn and, in learning, that we can change the very course of our lives. That, surely, is the purpose of any education worthy of the name, and worthy of our time. ]
Terenue College has pursued this purpose since 1860; and I warmly commend and congratulate Fr Michael Troy (O. Carm.), the College Manager, Principal Fr. Éanna Ó hÓbáin (O.Carm.), and Deputy Principal Mr. Frank Gallen for demonstrating such insight into what makes for a true, humane education.
I also commend the College’s Past Pupil’s Union for the key role they have played in converting the Concert Hall into this wonderful theatre. I particularly welcome their vision of having a theatre that is not just a resource for the College but also for the wider community. Donal would have appreciated that generosity.
The opening of this theatre is an extraordinary event, and an extraordinary testament to the ethos that has animated Terenure College all these years.
Were he here, Donal would be deeply moved to find himself so honoured by his alma mater.
And I thank you for that.
Thank you.