Final curtain for Focus Theatre

THE CLOSURE of the Focus Theatre was marked last night by a private performance attended by President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina Higgins.

Hollywood Valhalla by Aidan Harney was the last play to be staged at the theatre, which was founded in 1967 by American actor, the late Deirdre O’Connell. Her husband, folk singer Luke Kelly, was its first patron.

The founding company members included Sabina Higgins, along with Tom Hickey, Tim McDonnell, Johnny Murphy and Joan Bergin. Actors were trained in the Stanislavski system.

The theatre produced more than 300 plays between 1967 and 2012.

Speaking last night, the President said we all owed Ms O’Connell a debt of gratitude because she brought “the acting techniques developed by the foremost theorist of theatre in the 20th century, Constantin Stanislavski, to Ireland”.

“The introduction of these techniques was the primary purpose of her coming to Ireland,” he said.

“The result was a unique and invaluable contribution to the creative arts in Ireland.”

He said that without the Focus Theatre, Irish people “would have been deprived of access to some of the finest works that are important for an understanding of our humanity and the purpose of our human existence”.