'Screeching tyres and white knuckles: my blink-and-you-miss-it theatre debut'
31.12.69
LAURENCE MACKIN
SMALL PRINT: DEEP IN the gloamy darkness of the grounds of Rathfarnham Castle, I’m behind the wheel of a beautiful Austin Healy 3,000 Mark III. The steering wheel is creaking under my white knuckles, while the engine rumbles impatiently. A woman of no little intimidation is in the passenger seat, swathed in a tartan suit and with a black beehive Norman Foster would be proud of.
“Why the silence?” she asks. “Are we supposed to be in character or something?” With that killer line, Helen Norton managed to dispel any nerves, just seconds to spare before my Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival debut.
Several weeks earlier, the Performance Corporation made me an offer I couldn’t refuse – a small part in Slattery’s Sago Saga. There would be no lines, and no real rehearsals, but I would get to drive an Austin Healy.
Slattery’s Sago Saga is an off-site production, adapted by Arthur Riordan from an unfinished Flann O’Brian novel. In the opening scene, Tim Hartigan meets and greets the audience outside Pog mo Thóin Hall (played by Rathfarnham Castle). He is interrupted by the arrival of Crawford McPherson (Helen Norton) who barrels up the driveway in the Austin Healy.
Source: Irish Times