RENOWNED Limerick theatre group The Torch Players will present their 50th anniversary production, Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel, at Belltable from March 10–14. Directed by Maurice O’Sullivan — who has won over 40 Best Director Awards — the production marks half a century since Maurice co-founded the group in 1976. The Limerick Post sat down with Maurice to chat about the group’s origins and the resilience that has kept them treading the boards for fifty remarkable years.
From school stage to Belltable
Torch Players can trace its roots to the early 1970s, when Maurice O’Sullivan began staging Irish-language pantomimes and one-act plays with students at the School of Commerce on Mulgrave Street. Those early productions, shaped in no small part by the technical talents of Brendan Nash, won the national Féile Scoildrámaíochta in 1972 and 1975. When the students graduated, they didn’t want to stop.
“I remember saying to them, would you not just join The College Players?” Maurice recalls. “They said, well we wouldn’t know anybody in the College Players.”
So Maurice and Brendan started producing with the young actors in 1976. “We had no intention of going beyond that. But one play, of course, led to another play the following year, then another one. So you could say we evolved from a school drama group into a local drama group.”
Success came quickly. Torch qualified for the All-Ireland One-Act Finals twice, finishing third on both occasions, before staging their first full-length production, To Live in Peace, in 1979. The following year they transferred to the Confraternity Theatre — now the Belltable — where they have performed at least annually ever since.
Choosing the play
With hundreds of plays in his personal collection, Maurice has a clear philosophy when it comes to selection. “The main criteria would be, can I cast it? And secondly, would it appeal to an audience — if it doesn’t appeal to an audience, it’s a waste of time.”
Once March’s production wraps, he’s already thinking ahead. “Once the play is done, I’d be nearly straight away thinking what we might do next year.”
Casting typically happens over a few sessions in October, with rehearsals beginning in earnest the following January. This year’s Dancing at Lughnasa has eight characters — five women and three men. “Before I go ahead I would want to be sure that I have the actors available.” Seven of the eight cast members have worked with Maurice several times before.
For those who don’t make the cut, it’s a painful process. “There are people disappointed, especially if you hold readings, and if you have eight parts and you have 12 or 15 people reading, you’ve got to make seven awful phone calls after that. I don’t like that part of it.”
Behind the scenes
The return of Deirdre Minogue — serving as PRO and stage manager — has proved invaluable, alongside Gerry Lombard, with both widely credited as central to the group’s continued operation. Maurice is quick to acknowledge those who work behind the curtain. “They don’t get thanks. The actors have the adoration of the audience, but the backstage people — mostly we think they don’t exist, that it all just magically comes together every night.” He laughs.
Finding new directors from within the group presents its own challenge. “If they’re very good actors, I find that they generally don’t want to go directing.” Maurice himself has never acted with The Torch Players in these fifty years, though he did tread the boards with an Irish-speaking group in Clare and Kildare before arriving in Limerick in the 1960s.
Crossing fields and jumping fences
An amateur theatre group needs to be resilient. Without the luxury of understudies, Maurice has learned to improvise — and after fifty years, he has enough contacts to call on actors from other groups at short notice. But nothing quite prepared him for one particular festival in West Cork.
The set was due at one o’clock. It was not there at one, nor at two, nor at three. When the driver finally appeared, his excuse was disarming. “I got a puncture,” he explained. Maurice pointed out that a puncture does not generally consume an entire afternoon. “Ah no,” came the reply, “but sure I had to have me dinner.”
With the set finally arrived, the West Cork Car Rally — also happening in the town — blocked access to the theatre. Maurice and the crew were reduced to hauling scenery across three fields and several ditches. Then the bus arrived with the cast, minus one actor. With the curtain up at half eight and the part far from small, Maurice rang home in desperation. His daughter answered. “Can you put your mother on?” “She’s gone,” the girl replied. “Somebody knocked at six and she grabbed her coat and flew.”
His wife had already collected the missing actor and was thundering south towards Cork. Somewhere outside Patrickswell the actor shouted to stop the car, then jumped into the back seat, feeling rather safer with a seatbelt on. The Torch mobile made its own rally of West Cork that evening — and when the curtain came down, The Torch Players won the festival.
A play long in the pocket
For their golden anniversary, Maurice had Dancing at Lughnasa in mind for some time. “I had this play in my back pocket for a while, but I wasn’t going to attempt it until I had the right people.” It’s only the second Brian Friel play the group has produced, alongside a strong repertoire of John B. Keane and American works.
Maurice will be present for all five performances at the Belltable. As for gauging the reception? “There’s a standing ovation for nearly everything these days, so in that sense it is hard to know. But if you got a standing ovation 30 years ago, you’d really know.” He’ll be relying instead on a few trusted friends for an honest verdict.
After fifty years, it seems Maurice O’Sullivan still values a straight answer — on and off the stage.