The Last Night at The Catacombs
October 15 @ 7:30 pm - October 19 @ 7:30 pm
€20
Cast
* SIOBHAN MOONEY * MARTIN O’CONNOR * BRENDAN O’DALY *
* BILLY MULLIGAN * CLAIRE CARROLL * CATHAL O’RIORDAN *
* DÁITHÍ O BRION * NEIL SHARPSON *
DARRAGH BARRON * SARAH BYRNE *
* MARIA MONTELEONE * MARCOS ISLA * ELLEN CORCORAN *
* CORMAC FITZGERALD * BRIGID SWEENEY * PETER SHANNON *
* BRIAN BUCKLEY * JANE BAIRD * SUZANNE WALSHE *
* COLETTE O’DONOVAN * LOUIS O’BYRNE *
* HENRY MITCHELL * EMMA HURLEY * JIM BUTLER
**
‘If anything could happen, it could happen in the Catacombs, anything at all…’(J.P. Dunleavy).
The Production
Our Autumn production, ‘The Last Night @ the Catacombs’ is inspired by the 1940’s popular after-hours meeting place ‘The Catacombs’, for the new Dublin Bohemians. The story starts and ends with Dickie Wiley. He recalls the fervour of those years, the place as a safe haven and its ultimate demise. The audience will be led into the Catacombs, taking place throughout the entire basement of Teachers @ 36 Parnell Square.
About the Catacombs
The Catacombs was located in the underground basement of a Georgian House @ No. 13 Fitzwilliam Place. The nocturnal happenings of the Catacombs took place in the 1940’s when Dublin was an ultra-conservative, impoverished city, though it had a thriving artistic life. The impresario of this menage, was an Englishman, Richard Wyman (Dickie), a dandy, eccentric and fond of the bizarre.
Following the death of his officer boyfriend during World War 2, who he referred to as ‘the Faithful Heart’, broken-hearted he moved to Dublin. It was frequented by the new Bohemians of the day, young, poor, mostly students. Aspiring, up and coming writers and poets included Brendan Behan, J.P. Dunleavy, Anthony Cronin, John Jordan, & Pearse Hutchinson; actors such as Dan O’Herlihy, Godfrey Quigley and Carolyn Swift; sculptor Irene Broe; others included Gainor Steven Crist, John Ryan, Joan Furlong, & Des Mac Namara; the physicist Erwin Schrodinger along with some aristocracy, republicans, and revolutionaries. And Patrick Kavanagh. They would come from McDaids and party till the early hours. Songs, fights, romance, where ‘men had women, men had men and women had women’ (Brendan Behan).
