Ireland's leading king of comedy, Niall Toibin, made a welcome return to New York this Spring where he sold out his one-man show, An Evening With I Niall Toibin, as part of the Irish Arts Center's second Annual International Irish Comedy Festival. No stranger to packed houses, the last time Toibin performed in New York City was in 1971, when he portrayed the mature Brendan Behan in Borstal Boy and stormed Broadway-gaining a Tony Award for Best Play and catapulting the Cork native into the international spotlight as an acclaimed actor. Considered as one of the Patriarchs of modern Irish theatre, Toibin has brought to life and immortalized the characters created by Ireland's leading literary figures such as Samuel Beckett and Brian Friel. From his early days as an actor with the Irish State Radio Service, Toibin has risen to the ranks of an International Ambassador for the Arts in Ireland. In more recent years, Toibinhas been identified with his highly successful raconteur one-man comedy shows that have toured extensively around Ireland, and the role of the acerbic Parish Priest Father MacAnally in the hit BBC series, Ballykissangel. He has proven to have an uncanny eye and ear for capturing a range of Irish characters, and for generations has been a household name in his native Ireland and further afield. Performing over a period of six decades, Toibin boasts a career as diverse as it is distinguished, excelling in theatre, film, television, and comedy. In '95, his autobiography, Smile And Be A Villain, was published and went on to become a best seller in Ireland; Toibin has also served as editor of The Irish Reciter, an anthology of performance pieces of Irish poetry. A breathtaking repetoire, an outstanding individual, Dearbhail McDonald tries to get to grips with Mr. Niall Toibin. --Dearbhail McDonald.

GIVEN THE BREADTH OF ROLES THAT YOU HAVE PLAYED THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER, ARE YOU AWARE OF THE PLACE YOU OCCUPY IN THE HISTORY OF MODERN IRISH THEATRE!
Not really. It never occurred to me before that anybody would look at me in that light. Although I started out to be a very serious actor, meaning I had enormous ambition to be the next Olivier, as it would have been, at that time. But I found myself increasingly being pushed into a comic role. In a funny: way, I don't really know how it happened. My early career was launched not in playhouses, but in Radio, I spent over 14 years in Radio.

THAT WAS WITH THE R.T.E.--RADIO REPERTORY THEATRE!
Yes, and there you played all sorts, you just played as cast from one week to the next. There was a play live every Sunday night when Ijoined first, as there were no modern recording facilities. It was dependable enough just playing live, and that meant that provided you were cast, you found yourself playing a first night every night. I would have played anything and everything, and not from choice but because it was literally handed to you. This broadened my range enormously and forced me to tackle roles that normally I wouldn't even have been asked to play. After 14 years I was tired of it, I wanted to get out. I was also getting offers for theater and television work because TV. was arriving on the scene then. You had a very convent-like structure at the radio station, they did not want anybody doing work outside. You had to go on your bended knee and practically beat them with the rosary beads in order to get out beyond the convent door! Eventually, r turned down two offers and this allowed me to just leave anyway. So I left, and the offer that just catapulted all that was when I was asked to play Andy in the very first production of Brian Friel's Lovers. An excellent, a wonderful part, it really was. And I am eternally grateful to the playright responsible for such a beautiful piece, Brian Friel; I know he didn't write it for me specifically, but I am grateful nonetheless.

IRISH DRAMATIC LITERATURE IS SO RICH AND DIVERSE, AND MOST ACTORS WOULD TREASURE THE OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY JUST ONE ANDY OR BRENDAN BEHAN IN THEIR LIFETIME. AND YET HERE YOU ARE: BECKETT, BEHAN, FRIEL, O'NEILL; THESE ARE THE SEMINAL WRITERS THAT HAVE GIVEN IRISH THEATRE ITS DISTINCT IDENTITY, AND YOU HAVE REPRESENTED THESE DRAMATISTS THROUGH YOUR OWN ART
Yes, I also actually played Captain Boyle in 1973 in a production of June and the Paycock (Sean O'Casey) with Siobhan McKenna in Canada. That was a wonderful experience. I was to play it subsequently when it was revived in London, although I already had been contracted for something else. I would have loved to have had it first to some extent. Andy was a very funny role, full of funny lines, really. What stuck with me was my delivery of the funny lines.

WAS THIS DELIVERY THE GENESIS FOR WHERE YOU STAND AS A COMEDIAN TODAY!
Certainly. Yes. I got a review from Douglas Rush, a man who doesn't like me, who subsequently gave me a review-I can't remember the exact wording --Even I thought it was over the top, it was a very good review in fact and I think the words that he actually used were "blindingly brilliant." But certainly that role was a catalyst for the humorous roles and characters that I would later develop and become known for.

THE OUTBREAK OF THE FOOT-AND MOUTH CRISIS IN IRELAND, DID YOU FIND IT A SOURCE OF SATIRE OR POTENTIAL COMIC MATERIAL!
No I didn't. In fact, I found it very sad. We left when the outbreak was first reported in Meigh, Armagh. However, interestingly, you used the word satire, and I don't consider myself a satirist in any way, meaning I don't set out to satirize. I am more of an observationist, a commentarian maybe, because to me satire is something far more subtle and devastating than what is generally described as satire today. What is now defined as satire is just plain mockery and mimicry. To me it may be more truth than observation. It might be my fault that I sort of twisted the interpretation of traditional satire. Once the target is aware of the thing, the satire has had its effect. If you announce that you are going to do a satirical review... well you can't satirize if you know in advance.

WAS THERE ANY CONSCIOUS DELIBERATION ON YOUR PART TO MASTER YOUR CAREER--AN IDEAL MIX OF ART AND COMMERCE! WERE ONE TO PLAN SUCH A CAREER IT WOULDN'T HAVE MATERIALIZED.
No. The reason all this happened really was because I never did have a plan, I just took things as they came. If work was available and I was able to do it, Ijust took it. And I also chose to do things because I liked the idea of doing them, and I have at times turned down opportunities that would mean I don't set out an observationist Because to me satire is slow and devastating than satire today. What just plain have been more financially lucrative, but maybe less satisfying professionally.

WAS THERE EVER A STRUGGLE FOR YOU AS AN EMERGING ARTIST, WERE DIFFICULT CHOICES MADE BY YOU!
Yes, I have had to make difficult calls in the past, perhaps owing to a prior commitment to a comedy festival or whatever, where I have been forced to decline offers that otherwise would have appealed to me. For example, I played a production of The Field in The Abbey. I played that because I wanted to play the part of the Bull, McCabe, and also because I like John B. (referring to John B. Keane, the playwright). I had my own sort of view of the Bull and you know it was very, very favorably reviewed most of the time, by most people, and it certainly did very good business. It committed me, though, to fifteen weeks which we played in the Abbey, and I suppose five weeks rehearsal, and I reckoned by doing that I had pulled down a tour that would have played maybe two or possibly three shows of my own a week. And that would have cost me personally about &12,000 or &13,000 --a considerable sum in the '80s. But, I have to say that I would have picked that up again, and as an actor, preferred to have played The Field. Another wonderful play I took part in, one by Jim Nolan called The Salvage Shop met with a different fate. Unfortunately it was promoted appallingly, criminally, I would say, by the Theatre Festival at which it played for whatever reason, a reason that I have never been able to figure out. You know that play had a very successful run, did a really successful tour, it played the Gaeity for the Dublin Theatre. I don't remember even a single plug for it on the radio, especially for the tour. To me there was some type of hard feelings as myself a satirist in any way, to satirize. I am more of it, a commentarian maybe. something far more subtle that is generally described is now defined as satire is in mockery and mimicry." such. Ijust often wondered why it was so badly promoted, because it had such a great reputation prior to the festival. It did O.K. by all means, but it never got the attention it deserved as a play. I had worked my butt off for it, I thought it was going to be enormous and I had such a wonderful part. The Salvage Shop is an example of believing in something for its own sake, and not for personal or commercial gain.

ALTHOUGH IT DIDN'T QUITE MAKE IT, WOULD YOU CONSIDER THE PRODUCTION AS A HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR THEATRICAL CAREER AS IT WERE!
Oh, I would say that it was. It certainly was a highlight when it comes to creativeness, to creating any role, I probably got more satisfaction than 1 have ever got to play since Andy [Lovers]. You know, Andy was a piece of cake to walk, superbly funny and at the time I probably physically looked and sounded the part of him. And probably the fact that I was playing opposite Anna Manahan for the first time, the contrast between us was wonderful.

DO YOU FAVOR ANY PARTICULAR DISCIPLINE OVER THE OTHER, THEATRE TO COMEDY!
Not really, no. I enjoy all the different aspects of my works.

YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY DESCRIBED ACTING AS A COMPULSION, SOMETHING YOU CAN'T DO WITHOUT. HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT JUST WHAT IT IS THAT COMPELS YOU!
You know, I have never worked it out, what it is that compels, but I do know that if somebody begins to describe a situation to me, and it relates to performing a play, my automatic reaction is to say yes, not to say no. And sometimes I walk into a play half committing myself and then feeling that I have committed myself, ending up doing three acts at the same time. Essentially, my situation has always sprung from a basic enthusiasm rather than from anything else.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BACK PERFORMING IN THIS CITY ONCE AGAIN, POST BROADWAY AND TONY SUCCESS OF BORSTAL BOY IN 1971! WERE YOU SURPRISED AT ALL BY YOUR CURRENT SHOW'S POPULARITY!
I'm not surprised at all as roughly 80% of the New York audience are Irish or Irish/American and I love to play in New York. I'm lucky that I always had the confidence to say I can do this, I've never turned anything down...I've done everything.·