
The Portable Theatre
Directed by Terence McDonald1 stycznia 1969 24 min
An appealing portrait of the McCormick players, one of the last travelling theatre groups in Ireland in the late 1960s. Terence McDonald captures their variety show of songs, sketches and puppetry, along with interviews with the family members, most of whom were born into the business and have been on stage from as young as three years old. The audiences are diminishing due to the rise in television and showbands, but the family’s passion for the stage still burns brightly. RTÉ had scheduled this documentary for broadcast in 1967 but postponed transmission after the Apollo 1 explosion due to the unintended new context of one of Bert’s songs You’ll Never Reach the Moon. The film concludes with a song wishing the family goodbye with a final curtain call, with the family credited as Colm McCormick, Betty, Bert Patterson, Coral Patterson, Queenie White and Joe.
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The Portable Theatre was released on 1 stycznia 1969.
The Portable Theatre was directed by Terence McDonald.
The Portable Theatre has a runtime of 24 min.
An appealing portrait of the McCormick players, one of the last travelling theatre groups in Ireland in the late 1960s. Terence McDonald captures their variety show of songs, sketches and puppetry, along with interviews with the family members, most of whom were born into the business and have been on stage from as young as three years old. The audiences are diminishing due to the rise in television and showbands, but the family’s passion for the stage still burns brightly. RTÉ had scheduled this documentary for broadcast in 1967 but postponed transmission after the Apollo 1 explosion due to the unintended new context of one of Bert’s songs You’ll Never Reach the Moon. The film concludes with a song wishing the family goodbye with a final curtain call, with the family credited as Colm McCormick, Betty, Bert Patterson, Coral Patterson, Queenie White and Joe.
