The Gate Theatre Dublin: Where Orson Welles Made His Acting Debut
February 7, 2021
The Gate Theatre Dublin was founded in 1928 and today it continues to maintain its purpose as:
An international home for Irish artists and an Irish home for international artists, creating a ‘world theatre’ that leads cultural conversation for artists and audiences in a progressive and inclusive dialogue.[1]
Famous actors who started out their careers at the Gate include James Mason, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Michael Gambon, and most-famously Orson Welles. Although Welles only achieved stardom after moving to the US, it was at the Gate that he made his professional acting debut, in 1931, aged 16.
The Attraction of the Gate
When the Gate was founded by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiommóir, Irish citizens were given a taste of European and American theatre for the first time. Before this, theatres such as The Abbey in Dublin, provided a place for national playwrights to show off their work, usually concentrating on everyday Irish life.
Edwards stated:
The Gate exists to put at the disposal of our audiences all the riches of the theatre, past, present and future, culled from the theatre of all the world and irrespective of their nationality. A theatre limited only by the limits of our imagination.[2]
Alfred Wilmore was born in London in 1899 but was so intrigued by the Irish culture that he came over to live there in the 1920s, changing his name to the more Irish-sounding Micheál MacLiommóir. Hilton Edwards was also from London and both men were big fans of the Irish poet and dramatist W. B. Yeats. This pair went on to become one of the first openly gay couples in Dublin.
It was a performance given by MacLiommóir in September 1931 that really impressed Orson Welles and filled him with passion to join the company.
Born in Wisconsin in 1915, Welles’s parents died when he was young and he was put under the guardianship of Jewish doctor Maurice Bernstein, leaving school at the age of 16. Although he was offered a scholarship at Harvard, Welles felt the urge to fulfil his dream of becoming an actor.
He went on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago for just a few weeks, encouraging him to work as an artist. He first came to Ireland to take a painting and sketching tour of the west coast, travelling around with a cart and donkey, named ‘Sheeog’. Residents of the Aran Islands still remember him as a passionate dancer.
Welles still held the dream of becoming an actor so in September 1931, he travelled from the west coast over to Dublin and saw a show at the Gate Theatre. Welles watched MacLiommóir play the lead in The Inspector General and was captivated by the role. As soon as the play was finished, he went backstage to meet O’Callaigh, a young actor he recognized from his time in the west of Ireland who was allegedly a friend.
Welles’s Time at the Gate
Welles asked O’Callaigh to give a written note to directors MacLiommóir and Edwards, stating:
Orson Welles, star of the New York Theater Guild, would consider appearing in one of your productions and hopes you will see him for an appointment (Brady, Frank. Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles).
Welles claimed that he was 18, not 16 and already had experience working on Broadway. Edwards decided to cast him for the lead role of Duke Karl Alexander in the upcoming production of Jew Süss. Apparently, he did not believe Welles’ s story but was still impressed by his confidence and the audition he performed. In an interview years later, Edwards stated:
He didn’t have to lie to us. We could tell he had the bump of the theatre just from talking to him. And there was always room for one more on our boards (Brady, Frank. Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles).
Jew Süss was first performed on October 13th, 1931 and this was Orson Welles professional acting debut. He was the first American to act at the Gate and the show sold out, even though the film Morocco, featuring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich had just opened at the Capitol in Dublin on the very same evening.
Welles received a standing ovation for his role, telling biographer Barbara Leaming:
It was thunderous and totally unexpected. I got more acclaim for that than for anything else I’ve done since (3).
However, the co-founder and Hilton’s romantic partner MacLiommóir didn’t seem so happy about it. MacLiommóir was quite jealous of the attention Welles was getting from Hilton and felt upstaged by his recent, outstanding performance. Welles’s later roles at the theatre were smaller ones in plays that included Hamlet. MacLiommóir sometimes even placed large pieces of scenery in between Welles and the audience.
In March 1932, Welles performed in The Circle at the Abbey Theatre, before leaving Dublin and travelling to London to work. He may only have worked in the Gate for a small amount of time, but this marks the beginning of his acting career and he stayed in touch with Edwards and MacLiommóir throughout his career. Welles appeared to understand the insecurities of MacLiommóir and never held a grudge against him.
Life After the Gate
Unfortunately, Welles was unable to acquire the work permit he needed to stay in London so decided to move to New York, where he first achieved fame. Short biographies often start at this time in his life, as he went on to become an acclaimed actor in both theatre and radio.
Welles went on to found the Mercury Theatre in 1937 with producer John Houseman. After the success of his work at the Mercury Theatre, CBS Radio invited him to create a 13 weeklong summer show, beginning on July 11th, 1938. The Mercury Theatre’s adaption of War of the Worlds frightened some listeners who tuned in halfway through and thought there was a real Martian invasion. The publicity of this led to interest from Hollywood.
Welles was only 26 when he wrote and starred in Citizen Kane (1941). The film received overwhelming praise at the time and has been voted as one of the best films ever made. Throughout the time he spent in New York, Hollywood, and other parts of the world, Welles kept in touch with MacLiommóir and Edwards.
In the early 1950s, he asked the two men to come over, offering MacLiommóir the role of Iago in his movie version of Othello. Unfortunately, he could not afford to pay the men, which is probably the reason he agreed to return to Ireland and make a short film with them.
The short film Return to Glennascaul was released in 1951. It is set in the Irish countryside but was filmed in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Welles plays an American who hears an alarming ghost story from an Irish hitchhiker. This piece went on to win an Oscar for best short film. In 1954, MacLiommóir starred in another of his productions. This time in a TV production of King Lear.
Welles continued to travel to Ireland throughout his lifetime. His last on-stage performance was held at the Gaeity Theatre, Dublin in 1960. Chimes at Midnight, is a comedy-drama that contains a mash-up of five Shakespeare plays. The highly acclaimed film-version of Chimes of Midnight was directed by Edwards and released in 1965. Sadly, this was Welles’s last highly acclaimed piece and from then on, it’s been agreed that his career remained on a downward spiral.
He returned to Hollywood in 1970, financing his own projects and was often a guest on talk shows such as Johnny Carson and Dean Martin. He went on to make more films and appeared in television commercials but died in October 1985.
Conclusion
Orson Welles’s early life in Ireland is often overlooked, before he began his work in New York, going on to write and star in one of the greatest films of all time. It is interesting to learn more about where he started out and the people who inspired him along the way. The later work that MacLiommóir and Edwards had a part in after Welles had moved back to America is often forgotten about.
It’s worth taking time to wonder how Welles’s career might have turned out if he had not been given the chance to work at the Gate, meeting two influential men who remained in his life even after he’d become a household name in Hollywood.
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References
- Brady, Frank. Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles. (2015). NY Creative Publishing.
- Genius in the Making: Orson Welles in Ireland. https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/genius-in-the-making-orson-welles-in-ireland-34237664.html
- Explore the Gate https://www.gatetheatre.ie/
- Orson Welles and the Gate Theatre. TG4 Documentary (Part One) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXvHZVm0gEc&t=40s
- Orson Welles and the Gate Theatre, TG4 Documentary (Part Two) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2qo-dF6m8Q&t=75s