Theatre people tended to see all journalists as potential critics and looked on them warily "in the way the hare looks at the hounds" said Mr Gerry Smyth, Managing Editor, The Irish Times, in Dublin last night. He was speaking at The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards 1998 in the RDS, which were attended by theatre people from all over the island.
"Despite the protestations of journalists that they prefer to praise things rather than to knock them, nobody believes them," said Mr Smyth.
"We have all heard the abuse that's been levelled at critics by writers from Behan to Beckett, from Oscar Wilde to the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who described them as `drooling, drivelling, doleful, and depressing'. Perhaps, on the other hand, it's just that, as Orson Welles said: `Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him.' "
Then, he added, there was Noel Coward, who took his own inimitable view when he said: "I can take any amount of criticism as long as it's unqualified praise."
Mr Smyth assured his audience, however, that last night was "the night when the lion lies down with the lamb, when we're here to praise Caesar, not to bury him." The event, he said, was intended very much as a celebration of the combined talents of those gathered for the awards ceremony.
"Brendan Behan once remarked that success had damn near killed him. The recent successes of Irish playwrights, actors, directors, designers and company managers has had quite the contrary effect - bringing new life back into Irish theatre and advancing, at home and abroad, its reputation," said Mr Smyth, adding that there was a great deal to celebrate and share a sense of occasion about. "That's what tonight is all about."
He praised the judges, Mr Tony O Dalaigh, Ms Anne Enright and Mr Micheal O'Siadhail who, after attending 128 shows by 70 companies, had proved they possessed "more than a little passion for theatre". He thanked the theatre community for its support and responsiveness, and the ESB. "Working with an organisation which has a clear and progressive policy with regards to arts sponsorship has made this, for those involved on The Irish Times side, a pleasurable duty."
He also thanked Pauline McLynn "for the wit and exuberance of her leading role here last year - and her encore tonight."
Consoling those who didn't receive an award he assured them the sponsors didn't agree with W.C. Fields when he said "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it". To which Mr Smyth responded by telling the gathering: "Please do try, try and try again - and again."
The ESB chief executive, Mr Ken O'Hara, said that as a major company it believed it must measure itself against the best, that it must be capable of performing successfully on the world stage.
"Happily ESB has been doing just that, but perhaps not quite as successfully as Irish theatre, which in the last 12 months appears to have been conquering the world," he said, expressing his delight that Druid's The Leenane Trilogy had been seen in Australia and the US, while The Beauty Queen of Leenane was still running on Broadway. "The Abbey were also in Australia with Tom Kilroy's play while the Gate brought Beckett to Toronto and Wilde to Charleston," he said.
Not to mention, he added, the various productions that successfully toured closer to home. "I think it is fair to say that Irish theatre is thriving and is daily adding further lustre to our reputation worldwide."
These were good times for Ireland and for Irish theatre in particular. They should be capitalised on, he added.
"It would be easy to become complacent. That should not be allowed to happen. In fact it is now at this very time of success that we should be looking to the future, identifying areas of weakness and seeing what can be done about them now. For instance, in all walks of life today we talk about our young people and their talents. I am sure it must be the same in the theatre. But are we doing enough to nurture and encourage these talents? Is there sufficient training for them here in Ireland or do they still have to go abroad? Could we offer them better facilities?"
Mr O'Hara raised the question of whether the country had enough theatres - "and the kinds of theatres that encourage people to go to theatre?"
What, he asked, was the future for some existing theatres like the Olympia and the Gaiety? "It would be a sad day if they were to cease as playhouses entirely."
He too praised the judges and "our partners in this venture, The Irish Times".
On behalf of the judges Ms Enright noted that during the year, "apart from general slaughter", she and her two colleagues "saw 60 characters who died, either on stage, or just off it. Of these 60 deaths, two were of old age, 50 were murdered, six died by their own hand and two had lamentably tragic accidents."
She continued that "very few people went shopping. Only one person had a bath. There was some eating, a hell of a lot of drinking, and, surprisingly, only one person who had to take a leak."
Further "very few people had sex. Or, should I say, very few people had good sex. Unless they were gay - this is true - or three in a bed. Quite a few people had terrible sex. And, correct me if I am wrong, no one but no one, apart from Romeo and Juliet, was married.
But there was love, said Ms Enright. "Star-crossed, by fate or gender. Love found and lost, love complicated, love impossible, love betrayed." Did the good guys win? "No. Not after 1890. Happy endings 10 per cent, Sad 60 per cent, sweetly sad, sadly sweet, sadly triumphant, sweetly defeated 20 per cent.
"So, hopes lost, dashed, betrayed. And hope restored? Well apparently in all of them, 100 per cent," she said, adding that in theatres all over the country, she had seen people stand up and cheer. "I saw people button their coats and find their bags and march out into the night air renewed, myself amongst them." The most amazing statistic of all for her was that, "in this hungry, arbitrary animal that is Irish theatre, from big stage to small, a clear majority of the stories told were Irish. The source, the writers of over 60 of the plays I saw were Irish men. And woman. I mean. Yes. Women."
She concluded from all this that Irish playwrights were not afraid to write big though their focus might be small. "And this is the way that we want it," she said. "We go to Hollywood for happy endings. We go to television for soaps that refuse to end. But we still go to the theatre to witness, and be renewed." For that she thanked everyone present very much.
The attendance included the Editor of The Irish Times, Mr Conor Brady; the Chief Executive and Group Managing Director of The Irish Times, Mr Louis O'Neill, and the Chairman of the ESB, Mr Billy McCann .