of auspicious figures from the world of drama in Ireland North and South urge greater support for the second largest amateur movement in the country (after the GAA) and one of the strongest in Europe, it was particularly galling to have to sit through the pathetic adjudication of the useless Michael O’Hara who presided like some hybrid clown/comedian over this year’s Festival.

For all their gallant and praiseworthy efforts, the following groups, and their directors, stage crews and supporters received precisely NOTHING from him - not a word:

Phoenix Players, Portadown Defender of the Faith

Belvoir Players, Belfast Steel Magnolias

Newpoint Players, Newry Making History

Rosemary Drama Group, Belfast The Country Boy

The Clarence Players, Belfast Shoot the Crow

Three much-lesser awards (Supporting Actor, Technical Production and a Scholarship) went to current All-Ireland Champions Silken Thomas Players. Supporting Actress award went to Ballymoney. Décor went to Bart for The Big House (presumably for the pathetic doll’s house suspended above the stage throughout the performance, whose rear-view design (after the fire) bore no resemblance to its front view – [still a touch that would appeal to a clown and parodist like Michael]).

ALL ELEVEN OTHER AWARDS – and ALL the major awards went to Dundalk. This was nothing short of a disgrace and a parody of adjudication.

Before I go on, let me say that Dundalk was very good and deserving of up to three awards, including Best Actress for Aine Corcoran as the Marquise.

But ELEVEN? Never! They may have marginally deserved the Premier Award but few patrons would have chosen them and NONE would have accepted that they were far-and-away the best team of the week.

The Audience Award (thankfully out of the hands of the clown) went to Rosemary for Country Boy, my own choice of best performance, but HE thought them unworthy of any mention at all. Does he – and the other powers-that-be in drama – not realize that the audience is the most vital factor, there to be pleased and entertained?

For his part, O’Hara played for laughs for himself all week. He wanted to be liked.  On one particular night’s adjudication he used the word “nice” 27 times. It was drilled into us at secondary school to steer well clear of this anaemic, patronising and almost meaningless word but here was a ‘Lecturer in Education’ who seemed lost for any other word of praise!

He pranced the stage in a frenzied way, even while chastising one actor for allegedly (falsely) doing the same. Such a pantomime was this performance by O’Hara that one was often tempted to call out “He’s BEHIND you!!” He continuously insulted the intelligence of his audience (Newry’s drama audiences are notoriously well-versed in their subject) by focusing of the most trifling points of criticism and then repeating each ten times over, concluding inevitably with the appeal to the cheer-masters “Am I right – or am I right?”

‘You must be careful,’ he needlessly cautioned the excellent Paul McParland (Hugh O’Donnell in Newpoint’s Making History), ‘that you do not step over the line and parody the character you are portraying’. This from the supreme parodist.

‘But you didn’t do that!’ he added, making one wonder what point he was making in the first place. If you have nothing to say, Michael, hold your counsel.

He was into jokes and laughed and beamed at them so much that one expected the follow-up – “It’s the way I tell ‘em!” Come to think of it, he reminded me of Frank Carson at his worst!

FIVE times he remarked how Valmont, the seducer in Liaisons must have had “a terrible time at rehearsals.” One can only assume he thought much repetition would bring the message home to this dumb audience! Such schoolboy humour was his level. The ‘seduction scene’ from Liaisons (he couldn’t even pronounce it properly) won ‘Best Moment of Theatre’ from him – and that’s precisely how long this seduction lasted! Valmont as a Don Juan was pathetic, but O’Hara named him Best Actor for this single fixed-expression performance.

He was constantly and pathetically in search of audience approval. Like Mr Punch, he pretended not to hear the begged-for rejoinders: – “I can’t hear you!” he would call out.

Let us pray that we have seen the last of this fool. Newry Drama Festival has to look carefully at what it is doing. The use of the Bridge Bar  (yes! A public room in a tiny public bar) for the Festival Club – and for the adjudicator’s consultations with groups was nothing short of a disaster! What on earth is the adjoining Sean Hollywood Arts Centre for, if not for such an annual event as this?
 

I am reliably informed that play rehearsals too are now being conducted in private homes. Yet we have the Mayor closing the Festival, proudly proclaiming his delight at his Council’s unwavering support for the Arts! (He didn’t himself attend a single play – nor do I recall seeing a single Councillor at any performance). 

Personally I invested over £100 in this year’s Festival (including 3 Season Tickets) but I can’t see myself repeating my mistake unless things take a dramatic turn for the better next year!
 

Do audiences really not matter to the current powers in Drama?