The Pike Theatre was a theatre located in Herbert Lane,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

.The building was the Mews for No 6 Herbert Place (now No 43 Herbert Lane and is now occupied as offices)

History

Established in 1953 by Alan Simpson and Carolyn Swift, the Pike offered Dublin audiences continental-style late-night revues and modern international playwrights such as

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...

and Eugène Ionesco. In its early days it staged two notable premieres – the first complete English-language production of '' Waiting for Godot'' (1955) (the London production had been censored by the

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main c ...

) and Brendan Behan's ''

The Quare Fellow ''The Quare Fellow'' is Brendan Behan's first play, first produced in 1954. The title is taken from a Hiberno-English pronunciation of ''queer''. Plot The play is set in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. The anti-hero of the play, The Quare Fellow, is never ...

'' (1954). It was a favourite of critics such as Ulick O'Connor (critic for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'') and

Harold Hobson Sir Harold Hobson CBE, (4 August 1904 – 12 March 1992) was an English drama critic and author. Early life and education Hobson was born in Thorpe Hesley near Rotherham then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He attended Sheffield Gramm ...

(critic for ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

''). In May 1957 the theatre was visited by the Gardaí. They said that it had been brought to their attention that the play being produced that evening contained "objectionable passages", which had to be removed if the performance was to proceed. If the play went ahead without cuts, Simpson and the co-owner of the theatre, Carolyn Swift, would be liable for prosecution. The play in question was the opening production of the inaugural Dublin Theatre Festival, ''

The Rose Tattoo ''The Rose Tattoo'' is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams in 1949 and 1950; after its Chicago premiere on December 29, 1950, he made further revisions to the play for its Broadway premiere on February 2, 1951, and its publication by ...

'', by Tennessee Williams. It had won the 1951 Tony Award for Best Play, and the 1955 film version had won a number of Academy Awards. The following day Alan Simpson was arrested and charged with "presenting for gain an indecent and profane performance". The theatre continued the play's run on stage, while an intellectual revolt against the closing of ''The Rose Tattoo'' came not only from Ireland but also from the continent, led by playwrights Samuel Beckett,

Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. ...

, and

Brendan Behan Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ga, Breandán Ó Beacháin; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican activist who wrote in both English an ...

. Six weeks later, amid a welter of publicity, the hearing began. The defence team challenged a point of law in the High Court, lost, appealed to the Supreme Court, and won. Almost a year later, in June 1958, the hearing resumed. The judge found there was insufficient evidence to commit Alan Simpson to trial, and he was released. However the theatre fell on hard times and closed in 1961. Simpson went on to work for the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the p ...

, while Swift went into television and had a long association as scriptwriter with the children's program ''

Wanderly Wagon ''Wanderly Wagon'' is an Irish children's television series which aired on RTÉ from Saturday 30 September 1967Hourihane, Anne Marie''Sunday Tribune'' 11 August 2002. until 1982. Plot ''Wanderly Wagon'' followed human and puppet characters as t ...

''. The artist Reginald Gray designed many settings for The Pike Theatre, including the production of ''The Rose Tattoo''.Evening Mail. Dublin. 13 May 1957. Theatre critic R.M. Fox on "The Rose Tattoo": "To have presented such a play without a hitch on the tiny Pike stage reflects great credit on Reginald Gray's settings and Alan Simpson's production."

References

External links

Theatres in Dublin (city) 1953 establishments in Ireland {{Ireland-theat-struct-stub