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by Terry Roethlein ... Our Lady of Sinead Cusack’s Winning Role Ps late aftemoon, and Sinead Cusack sts in New York's Irish Reperto- ry Theatre, almost overshadowed by the slightly ominous set for Sebas- tian Barry's latest play, Our Lady of Sligo, Behind the smiling, tine- honed aetess, the sage is dressed witha steel hospital boda rep and thse plain walls hang with religious painiangs—Dublin's Jervis Street gm surroundings where Cussek's character, Mai O'Hara, an sce Vitim as old a the century, ives out her final days. Float ing in and out of a monphine haze, she feverishly relives the pat, alterote 2y regretting her mistakes then lsughing at ther, raging against hee own st life and against an era of Inish history, marked by disappointment + is based on Barry's grandmother and is emblematic of the ‘orgotten Irish middle elass—the high-living Catholic bourgeoisie tht pros- peted under British rule but eventally succumbed to the Sinn Fein revolu- ‘don and the austere rule of Prime Minister Exton deValera, who ascended jn J932 and dda’ step down unt 1958, To previews, the petite, blue-eyed Cusick, 52, inhabits the character whole Jy, blazing with anger and passion for life—one moment spitting out ven- ‘mous curses at her husband and drinking partner, Jack Carlath Conroy) and thc next delicately wrapping her tongue around one of Barey’s many mel- Tiflacus speeches. ‘The role is the latest achievement in an impressive carver that includes rmany British television appearances throughout the 1971s and numerous seclaimed roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, of wien she was’ a regular rember from 1979 t0 1984, Notable Broa way performances include Much Ado About Nothing and Cyrano de Bergerac with Derek Jacobi both in “94 and in films such as Bomar do Bortohueei’s Stat ing Beauty (1996), Steven Gyllenbsal’s Waterlond (1992) ead ‘Andie Birkin's The Cement Garden (1993), The award- winning Our Lady of Sligo ws originally produced in London in 1998 and is. dicted by Max. Stafford- +30 IRISH CONNECTIONS: Whar di it take to prepare for the role of 8 £ Hara? {idl alot actually, Because of the sie of i, becsuse its so gargantan in| leaning terms, I broke a rule of my proféssional life and stared Tearing lines before I went into rehearsal, Why’T frown on that usually fs because T always believe a good prediction of a play arises aid evolves, enganically ‘out of the work between the actors ail the Ulfseibi Any predisposition or preconception ahout that process is actually damaging to the rehearsal process, That's always been my contention..up until this point, T knew T ‘could not work rehearsals in a state of continual hystcric panic. And that's the state I would have been in if only had four weeks to prepare for that roe. So I started Ieaming.four months before and I leat it ike the Catechiso You know what the Catechism is? We learned it as Catholies at school, used to teach Cetechisr, but just fr 8 year. There you go! (Laughs) Gash! So I learnt it like the Catheehisn: Now when we went into rehearsal, great swathes ofthese were cut or they were changed, but the basic learning was ‘a buge comfort to mie and a foundation on which I was abe to build, then spent a great deal of time researching Mai, the character herself. 1 went to Sligo. [vent to Galway. Hound her hous, her university records. met peo ple who knew er. [alked to poople about er. Tsoaked myself in the accent | made endless recordings of Galway women of a ceri age. I researched cancer. [researched aleobolism, It wis lt of work but i was rewarding Alcoholism shows up as a theme in lots of Trish Uterature and theatre ‘Does it reflec reality in your experience? Does it make for good art? ‘This is a dificult one and to generalize ubou itis incredibly dangerous. The Trish tradition i an oral tradition, Our hs vas passed don by means of storyelling-dfferent from English literature, which was pasted down by the writen word. Ours was the spoken word. Side by side with that spoken ‘word was the “round the fie” othe “round the pub element, People com. rmunally gathered, caroused and told stories, That's the tradition we come fom. T would hate to wivialize the Irish artistic tradition by saying we pro: duced great writing because we had great drinkers. And als, Sebastian does °C drink! (Laughs) So I'm just trying to pati into o bit of ahistorical con: tent. Ours was a tradition of storytelling and maybe tat included more rink ing than the hermit like existence the writers had experienced ‘The show received excellent reviews in England and thon was brought here. Did American audiences react differenti (0 it? 'No, we made no concessions or changes in order fo accommodate in Amer- ican ear because I think tat would e fiddling wrongtally with the play. We have gone from Saturday night, when every nnance of the play was caught every Taueh was there and they understood every historical reference. Then ‘other nights there wll be ahushed and, you hope, respect! silence. But it's ‘usally almost a cathedral-like silence, Then they'll give you a standing ova ‘ion athe end and, it’s like, “Christ, they didn’ understand any of that” So ‘we have gone from one extreme to the other “This ply is he siath in a series of plays about Ireland by Barry. How does his work fit in to what else is going on in Irish theatre? It's an amazing canon of work, I would be loathe to say “tends.” or to cae _gorze him in any ay, because he has a usique voice, as does Brian Friel, ‘Tom Murphy or Martin MeDonggh, These young writes, my God! It seems te me that if there's any trend, it's that Irland somehow per capita for what fever reason, produces an extraondinary variety of waiting talent. And why lle blesed in dha way Thave no idea, Maybe i's because of that great oral ination we were taking about. suppose, historically, the storytelling side of our history has been almost nurtred by visionaries within the govern ‘ment, such as Padraig Pearse, the leader who signed the proclamation fl the Isish Republic in 1916 who ws writer and & poet. And more recently we bad an ats nist named Michael D. Higgins who was 2 poet and because ofthat [tink there is a fge respect for the ats ia Ireland Regarding the impact of the Famon deValera administration on the Catholic mide class—sou were burn in Dalkey, Dublin and educated in Ireland. Did deValera affect you at all? Oh yes, yes. As a woman, I always felt myself to be the weaker vessel ~ because that was the attitude that was encouraged. My parents were both aclors, a8 were my grandparents, so had a more liberal and open view of things than what transpired a lot of Irish households. I sappose it was incul- cated in me—the notion that @ woman's place was in the hearth. 1 have to 3 dhat—I'm til idle with uit Would that be one of the reasons why vou left Irland? eft for so many reasons. basically left because I wa thrown out ofthe Abbey Theatre, They sad I coulda’t be heard past the fist thee rows from the stage. I've spent my enti professional life cisproving that, The bigger the theatre, the happier Iam. Yeab, Tas thrown aut! So the opportunities were not vast for me there. And also, you know, every child of 21 wants to fly the coop, wants to carve her owa namie. My Dad (actor Cyril Cusack) was 2 very big nse in Ireland, widely respected and loved, Think Ijust waated to get out from under ‘So you went to England in 1969 and did a lt of Shakespeare. Huge amounts of Shakespeare, There's hardly one of those women Thaven"t played. [dd it the wrong way around, I did television an films in my 20s, s0 Thad n0 proper irsining, rally. And then in my thirties 1 said God. P've {ot to put this right. ve got to get sil, because all Lever wanted to be was a stage actress. That yas my ambition, So T them had 0 len say eral, aged 30, and Thought the best place to Learn was the Royal Shakespeare Compa- ‘y-—with ceaseless rounds of verse-speaking, movement, and sonnet clases, is it when you go back to Ireland? How much has changed for women? Isa very, very differen county indsod, The bold the Church had on Irelané ‘was a very significant one and it has lessened. I's beon undermined by var Jous Scandals in the Church but slso because peaple are educating their chil siren towards a broader understanding of right fom won. Se tht rigiy CCatholie ec that we had to adhere t0 i Less now You've done a Tot of theatre and films recently. Is there a direction you wand (0 g0 in, perhaps one more than the other? ve beet fold all my life that a woman's acting career becomes seriously jeopardized by the time she yes ta 38. ALAS, you'te pretty much ever the Dill T stared having a wonderful time toute 40 t've never soughe stardom, Thave sought excellence, becaase Have that. It gives me great pleasure i 1 can do something tothe best of my aby Think hats dhe quesioe, Some times I surprise myself by doing something oven beter than | thought 1 could. But I do constantly sock the challenge. So it doesn’t really mater to ‘me what medium. But stage is my favorit, by fr, because can't see myself Thate seeing myself. find ic extemely ptinfal ard avoid iat all cst. ve read that with actresses such as Merl Streep—that as they get older there are less and less good roles. You're 52 and sill sem to get good roles. Maybe it's beeause Meryl, Glean (Close| and the like had sich stl film success —whereas I've always had a very broad: based career don't think Meryl could ever have done television, once she stared making those movies, People would have thought she'd taken a rorograde step. Whereas | never hd that problem. I went for the roles and then, guite a To, dottered sout T think it works in your later years, However, we all ty ap and. \want to touch wood. [Knocks on table] I spend all my tne ere in America touching word, erssing my fingers, praying, It's ust rdiculos, What was it like working with your husband, Jeremy Irons, os Waterland, in which you play a husband and wife tortured by a childhood abortion? ‘That was incredibly difficult, because those two people were poised on the edge of an abyss into which they both fell, There ure huge advantages with working with someone as close a your husbaasd oF your children or your The Ginger Man ( problem in this station as everyone else, should I go heme? When wil T see her? Will this go wrong? Thave a few friends who pop in and some phone friends who check up on me every now sand then and if you have someone who is ia the house they ste in their own quarters, I miss the children aroand the place, they ae quite wonderful and even now they come back all grown up and reminisce about their childhood and walk arouad and remember where they've been. This isa house tt chil dren go insane about. My own children and te others (childcen of lady friends) all keep in touch and exery year have a party forall of them, ABOUT MAKING BOOKS INTO FILMS. IPA was one ofthe few people tained in the business of writing sereenplays and even fils and I can thankfully say this, if you find The Collected Leters of Kenneth Tynan by the great English enti, look up JP Donleavy and there you will ead what Orson Welles says about me as a scrphriter. Hollywood is ‘vanity, and people want wo be sereenwriters because they can make & good liv= ing andthe problem Ihave i that people pick up my books and think they can ‘be made into Tims and ies plain vanity for Hollywood because they ate just interested in the money. Ifyou take profesional playwrights like Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams, when waiting plays they practically write novels, because they have expounded so much on them. Some people come and ask ;me to write an original sereenplay and I was tld I couldn't do it, whieh moti vated me more to doit. The Ginger Man hasn't gotten made because people forget that censorship stopped it to begin with and I was in litigation with (Olympia Press for 25 years over the rights, so no one could make it. Nowadays it is possible to make it without dice. ‘THE FUTURE? JP: doait know whether Thave any place tobe led and Tmight be deposited in ‘the chapel and my lady friend has tin her will that shell be buried with me there. Tdwell often inthe past because it presents me with a future, [never have had waiter's block a there's always something to de, Where [live now is perfection, that’s the problema, We can tend to enjoy itt degree but you need some inrtation in life to. This Dublin Theater Company production is atthe Irish Art Center tl July 2. Sinead Cusack's - Winning Role (con't) ssietd i et : vocabulary stich makes your characters incredibly rich, so you don't have t build up painstakingly, like I had to with Msi The body of language is there and you instinctively understand the other person's rhythms—it's all thee. The downside is that you know each other intimately and you can pross buttons that are damaging, or you can predict too easly how that person is going to ize that person by expecting them to behave as they do ‘marriage or by not treating them professionally. So its fraught with culty, but [think the advantages well outweigh the disadvantages. You've been married for 22 years. How did you to meet? Fast when I met him he was doing a play called Godspell. He was playing. John the BeptstiJudas Iscariot and I vas doing a play called London Ensur= ‘ance and we shared a stage door. In the West End, thre were wo theatres ‘with the same stage doc, so Tused to see itn. He was then introduced to me. pub the way actors get together afer te show: He was inroxiuced to me by a mntual frend and he called me Siobhan and I hit him. That was @ good beginning! And then subsequently, a matual friend of ours had the same birthday as him and they gave a lie dinner party ata restaurant aad 1 was ‘one of her guests ited outrageously with him and it worked. ‘What's next? You have two new films, Passion of Mind, with Demi Moore, was directed by Alain Berliner, best known for Ma Vie En Rose and My. Mother Prank directed by Mark Lamprell. made My Mosher Frank in Australia last year, which was a quisky and gor- ‘ge0us litle sept and a wonderful part for a woman of 52—mullfaceted and funny: t's about a woman who i stil grieving the dea of her husband, who ‘died several years before. Her children azeirtated with he, 80 they encour age her to do something and she decides to go to the same university as her son. That's whete the comic impulse Hes, The sad element is when she dis- covers midway through...She fas to overcome huge obstacles. Sam Neill, plays my professor and he's biliant co werk with. Thad a whale of atime. 1 loved Sydney andthe film and just hope it gets distribution e's coming out in Australia just after finish Our Lady of Sligo. But Pm not allowing myself to dwell onthe future forthe moment. Tam too taken up. P' have to even tually though; 've got 1 g20W up. Erin Go. ee gh! 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