The Field Day Archive
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THE FIELD DAY ARCHIVE CORMAC O DUIBHNE Field Day Publications Dublin 2007 Cormac Ó Duibhne has asserted his right under the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000, to be identified as the author of this work. Copyright © Cormac Ó Duibhne 2007 ISBN-10 0-946755-34-5 ISBN-13 978-0-946755-34-9 Published by Field Day Publications in association with the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Field Day Publications Newman House 86 St. Stephen’s Green Dublin 2 Ireland www.fielddaybooks.com Set in 10pt/12pt Baskerville Designed and typeset by Caroline Moloney and David Anderson Printed on 150 gsm 2 Acrtic Matt This publication has received support from the Heritage Council under the 2007 Publications Grant Scheme. for Marion and Seamus, and for Norah CONTENTS Buíochas vi Introduction 1 Chronology 7 The Field Day Archive General Contents 13 Detailed Listings 21 How to Use the Archive 159 Locations of Other Resources 163 Appendix: People Associated with Field Day 165 vi The Field Day Archive BUÍOCHAS Thug Seamus Deane, Brian Friel, David Hammond, Seamus Heaney, Thomas Kilroy, Tom Paulin agus Stephen Rea tacaíocht agus dea-thoil don tógra seo ón tús. Bhí Norah Campbell, Marion Deane, Claire Kelley agus Kathryn Kozarits ina gcuidiú agam agus páipéir, grianghrafanna, fístéipeanna agus ábhair eile sa Chartlann á rangnú agus á gcur in ord agam. Chuidigh Jessica Dougherty McMichael, Heather Edwards, Michael O’Connor agus Cheman Roy liom fosta agus an obair sin idir lámha agam. Chuir Breandán Mac Suibhne comhairle orm fá ghnéithe éagsúla den tógra. D’aistrigh Manus McManus agus Sunniva O’Flynn, Irish Film Archive, agus Darby agus Mercedes Carroll fístéipeanna agus scannáin go foirm leictreonach. Bhain mé tairbhe as saineolas agus cabhair na ndaoine seo: Stephen Ball agus Peter Kenny, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann, Sara Smyth agus Eugene Hogan, Cartlann Náisiúnta Grianghrafadóireachta, Katerina Gotsi, Eamonn Deane, Colette Nelis, Ciarán Deane agus Pat Loughrey. Caroline Moloney a dhearaigh cuid den leabhar seo agus a d’aistrigh cuid mhór de na grianghrafanna. Thug Robert South agus David Anderson ó Nicholson and Bass cabhair mhór dom chomh maith. Gabhaim buíochas croí leo go léir. CÓD Iúil 2007 PREVIOUS PAGE: DETAIL OF PROMPT COPY OF SCRIPT OF THE MADAME M ac ADAM TRAVELLING THEATRE BY THOMAS KILROY (1991). PROMPT COPY IS NOTEBOOK WITH PLAY SCRIPT PASTED ONTO LEFT SIDE OF EVERY OPENING, WITH STAGE DIRECTIONS, LIGHTING INSTRUCTIONS, ETC. ENTERED ON RIGHT HAND PAGE. OPPOSITE: DETAIL FROM COVER OF PROGRAMME FOR SEAMUS HEANEY’S THE CURE AT TROY (1990). PAINTING BY BASIL BLACKSHAW. vii viii The Field Day Archive INTRODUCTION 2 The Field Day Archive INTRODUCTION A Brief History of Field Day The Field Day Theatre Company was founded in MacAdam Travelling Theatre (1991), Stewart Parker’s September 1980 by playwright Brian Friel and Pentecost (1987) and Northern Star (1998), Terry actor Stephen Rea. The immediate objective was to Eagleton’s Saint Oscar (1989), Seamus Heaney’s stage Friel’s latest play, Translations . The name of The Cure at Troy (1990, after Philoctetes by the company is a play on the surnames of its two Sophocles), and Frank McGuinness’s adaptation of founders, although the phrase’s other resonances Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (1995). Stephen Rea either were undoubtedly also in mind. Four new directors directed or played the lead role in all but two of were named in August 1981 – academic and poet these plays ( High Time and The Madame MacAdam Seamus Deane, folk singer and filmmaker David Travelling Theatre ). Field Day also produced two Hammond, poet Seamus Heaney, and academic rehearsed readings – David Rudkin’s Cries from and poet Tom Paulin. The board of directors Casement as his Bones are Brought to Dublin (1992) expanded to seven members in 1988 with the co- and John Berger and Nella Bielski’s Goya’s Last option of playwright and novelist Thomas Kilroy. Portrait (1994). From 1981 to 1999 Field Day maintained an administrative office in Derry that coordinated the Field Day has also been a publishing company various contributions of the directors and the many since 1983, when Heaney’s Sweeney Astray and the others involved in the company. first set of three Field Day Pamphlets were published. Four more sets of pamphlets followed, The primary business of Field Day at its inception the last appearing in 1988. While three of the was theatre. In all, the company staged 16 directors contributed pamphlets, most were productions in the period 1980 to 1998. The first written on a once-off basis by outside contributors, three were plays by Friel: Translations (1980), Three including academics, lawyers and cultural critics. Sisters (1981, adapted from Anton Chekhov) and Some of the pamphlets have also been published in The Communication Cord (1982). Friel also book form. Field Day’s publishing activity was contributed Making History in 1988. The opening largely separate from its theatrical productions, of Translations in September 1980 set a pattern for although two plays were published as books – nearly all future productions to open in that Eagleton’s Saint Oscar (1989) and Heaney’s The month and continue into late December or early Cure at Troy (1990). A book of essays to mark the January. In 1983, Boesman and Lena , by the South 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Revising the African Athol Fugard was staged. 1984 saw Field Rising , was brought out in 1991. Also published in Day’s only double bill, with Tom Paulin’s The Riot that year were the first three volumes in the large- Act (based on Sophocles’ Antigone ) and Derek scale Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing , edited by Mahon’s High Time (based on Molière’s School for Deane. A further two volumes devoted entirely to Husbands ). Subsequent productions were Thomas women’s writing, co-edited by a panel of eight, Kilroy’s Double Cross (1986) and The Madame came out in 2002 to address perceived short- comings in the first three volumes. The other directors dropped and a series of resignations major publishing venture embarked on by Field ensued. The result is that since 1999 Field Day has Day is the Critical Conditions series of 16 continued with only two active directors on the monographs and collections of essays on aspects of board: Deane and Rea. No theatre has been Irish culture and history, published between 1996 produced between 1999 and 2007, the time of and 2006. The Field Day Review , an annual journal writing. The company closed its Derry office in of Irish studies was launched in 2005. The first two 1996 and had no dedicated administrative home monographs of the Field Day Files series were from then until 2004, when an office for Field Day published in 2006, as were the first two books Publications opened in Dublin in partnership with in the Field Day Music series. Publication dates the Keough Institute for Irish Studies at the of 2007 and beyond have been set for new editions University of Notre Dame. For the time being at of several English- and Irish-language works dating least, all of Field Day’s energies are concentrated from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. on publishing. The early 1990s saw a decline in Field Day’s THIS PAGE: BRENDA SCALLON AND LIAM NEESON IN theatrical activity and the beginning of the end of TRANSLATIONS BY BRIAN FRIEL (1980). the first phase of the company’s existence. For PREVIOUS PAGE: FRONT COVER OF NATIONALISM, various personal and professional reasons, COLONIALISM AND LITERATURE, CO-PUBLISHED BY participation and commitment among the FIELD DAY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS IN 1990. 4 The Field Day Archive What the Archive Contains The material that makes up the Field Day Archive printed matter (flyers, handbills, etc.). Among these covers all aspects of the company’s activities, in are hundreds of original documents produced by many cases in minute detail. The material came the seven Field Day directors. The regular-format from three main sources. First, by far the majority paper documents, including nearly all Field Day of the material was held on file by administrators publications, fill around 50 archival boxes. and other staff at the Derry office and elsewhere from the company’s foundation in 1980 until 1999. A small proportion of these documents have been Secondly, a smaller amount of material was transferred to digital formats and are available in donated to the Archive from Seamus Deane’s section IV.xv of the Archive. Items that have been personal records and from Stephen Rea’s personal digitized in this way are indicated throughout the papers. Finally, some material was recovered from Detailed Listings section of this catalogue. the Dublin office in the period 2004 to 2006. While the material from Deane has been arranged in a The Field Day archive is unusually rich in non- separate section of the Archive (section IX), all the paper items. These include: other material has been integrated into other G comprehensive set of cuttings from Irish sections. national and local press, sorted by date (1980 to 1992 and 1995) The distances that separated the company directors from the office and from each other G hundreds of cuttings from Irish national influenced not just the way that the company and local press and international press, conducted its business (for example, it was often (1990 to 1994 and 1996 to 2006) difficult to convene all directors), but also the form G 27 quarter-inch audio tapes; recordings of that the Archive has taken (for example, letters various theatrical productions and faxes were the main modes of communi- cation). None of the directors lived in Derry; G 24 audio cassette tapes; recordings of press Deane and Heaney have permanent homes in coverage, etc.