And whatever the fare it flows

15 Feb 1975

The Olympia Theatre has some unusual features, including a stage that is situated at the front of the building, instead of the back.

But until this week, when I went to see for myself,  I didn’t know that a river ran underneath the stage, a flight down.

The river, or rather stream, is the famous Poddle, which rises in the Tallaght Hills and joins the Liffey at Wellington Quay after flowing under the Liberties, Dublin Castle and the Olympia. A manhole in a tiny room leading off one of the many passages under the Olympia stage gives access to the walled up Poddle. The underground course of the river is passable, on foot, to Harold’s Cross, two miles away. Some Dublin stories say that during the War of Independence Michael Collins’s men used the Olympia’s manhole to escape from the Black and Tans. William J . Stapleton, a 1916 veteran and a member of the G.H.Q. staff responsible to Collins, tells me the Poddle line of retreat was well discussed at a few meetings, but to his knowledge was never officially used, although some of the 3rd Battalion of Volunteers may possibly have traversed the course. “We knew the Poddle ran under the Castle. There was talk on one occasion of putting a time-fixed bomb on a piece of timber and floating it down the stream under the Castle,” he added.

Under Castle

Lorcan Bourke, a director of the Olympia, has been down the manhole and went some of the way on the path beside the stream, and as recently as last December Richard Hallinan, another director, traversed 700 yards right under the Castle. Gaseous fumes prevented further exploration. The interior of the theatre is a vast network of steel scaffolding, as word is awaited to start repairing the damage sustained in the fall of a girder last November. At a recent press conference John Slemon, manager of Che Abbey, echoed John Donne’s¦famous lines, “Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” when he said that the Abbey and other Dublin theatres would be the poorer if the Olympia were to disappear. The special Abbey performance of “Purple Dust” last Sunday evening brought more than £500 to the Restoration Fund, and tomorrow night Cecil Sheridan—who has been almost fanatical in his endeavours to win support for the Fund — has arranged a performance of his show,”The Good Old Days” at the Eblana. The cast and staff are giving their services free.

Indeed, support is coming from all over the country, as not only theatres in Cork, Limerick and Waterford but entertainment centres such as the Embankment in Tallaght, Clontarf Castle, the Drake Inn, the Old Shieling and Gulliver’s Inn, are arranging benefit shows.

From America

Kevin O’ Morrison, the Irish-American dramatist, whose play, “The Morgan Yard”, was seen at the Olympia during the 1974 Theatre Festival, -writes to me from New York: “I do hope that Dublin — and those of us fortunate enough to be visiting theatrical craftsmen — will not lose the Olympia. It is one of the finest theatres I’ve ever had the pleasure of working in. Its loss would be a sad, personal one to me.”

The Olympia was where Cecil Sheridan began in 1940. “I love every stone of it,” he says. Like Lord Longford in the 1950’s, collecting for the restoration of the Gate, Cecil makes a collection for the Olympia at the end of each show at the Eblana. It strikes me that when the theatre is restored a bust of Cecil should be placed there.

“Purple Dust”—Sean O’Casey’s irrepressible comedv satirising the English — and the Irish. At the Abbey. “The Tailor and Ansty” – Magical story-telling, and an unforgettable picture of a delightful Co. Cork couple. At the Peacock. “The Good-Natured Man” Gate gloss, Gate style, applied to Goldsmith’s benign comedy. MacLiammoir magnificently Dickensian. At the Gate. “Robinson Crusoe” — Set sail for Maureen Potter’s Never-Never land. At the Gaiety. “The Good Old Days” — The great songs of the day before yesterday. Sheridan and O’ Callaghan distribute the nostalgia.

At the Eblana, “Dear Janet Rosenberg, Dear Mr. Kooning” — Comedy of letters. Transfers on Monday to Eagle, Glasthule, from Focus. “Christmas Capers”—It’s a long way to, or from. Christmas , but Chris Casey pretends it isn’t. At Clontarf Castle, “The Killer”—Eugene Ionesco’s tragi-comedy about a mysterious and murderous presence is having its Irish premiere at U.C.D. (opens Mon.).

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