Mac Pollock on George Shiels, Shakespeare plays and Sibelius

Chairman of Ballymoney Drama Festival and Administrator of Portrush Summer Theatre, Mac Pollock has been involved with the theatre since childhood.
Mac PollockMac Pollock
Mac Pollock

Here he answers our questions:

Q. What is your favourite song/album?

A. I don’t listen to albums or really modern day music. I prefer to listen to a CD of a male voice choir. I have vivid memories of attending a concert given by the Treorchy Male Voice Choir in St David’s Hall, Cardiff, and while attending a conference in Llandudno. I went on three consecutive nights to the hear male voice choirs in competition.

Q. What is your favourite film?

A. I lived for the first thirteen years of my life in High Street, Ballymoney, opposite Bob Kane’s Ranch, The Palladium Cinema. I and my friends went faithfully every Saturday to the matinee. The Picture House got its name because cowboy pictures were shown in preference to anything else.

John Wayne featured frequently. During lockdown a number of his films have been seen on TV - True Grit and recently The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. But really I suppose The Quiet Man is a classic.

Q. What is your favourite piece of classical music?

A. I don’t play any instrument but I do like listening to classical music. When I was Chairman of Ballymoney Arts Committee as part of our autumn programme we brought small groups out of the Ulster Orchestra to perform in Ballymoney Town Hall. The committee selected the programme from a number offered to be performed. Miss Catherine Tomlinson, who taught music in Dalriada School and was organist in St Patrick’s Parish Church, was on the committee. She advised us and would have said “Even you, Mac, will recognise some of the tunes.”

I suppose a piece I like is Finlandia by Sibelius, which of course is the “tune” used for the hymn “Be Still My Soul” which I associate with my father.

Q. Who is your favourite artist?

A. As a photographer, I like all my paintings to be really a photograph. Jack Wilkinson was a local Ballymoney artist. He was a painter and decorator and became an artist painting all around Ireland but particularly the North Antrim coast and Ballymoney. One of his best portraits is of our local playwright George Shiels. This was presented to The Abbey Theatre, Dublin, by Ballymoney Drama Festival and was recently on display in Ballymoney Museum.

Q. What is your favourite play?

A. I have already mentioned George Shiels. He was born, lived and wrote many of his plays in Ballymoney. He kept The Abbey Theatre open for many years. His plays are all based on incidents and characters from Ballymoney. “The Passing Day” is a play which I have seen performed many times, including in The Abbey, and I produced it for Ballymoney Literary and Debating Society a few years ago.

Q. What is your favourite musical?

A. Les Miserables. The history and music I find keeps my attention. The first time I saw it performed was when a group from BLDS (Ballymoney Literary and Debating Society) went to The Point Theatre in Dublin.

Q. What is your most special moment in the arts?

A. I suppose two special moments which are linked. While still at Dalriada School going with BLDS to the Ulster Drama Festival in The Grand Opera House, Belfast, with Mr GE Gordon’s production of “The Enemy Within” by Brian Friel. The amateur world premier was staged at Ballymoney Drama Festival that year.

I performed on the stage of The Opera House, again at Ulster Drama Festival, in a BLDS production of Habeas Corpus by Alan Bennett. A play which almost brought my acting career to an end.

Q. What ‘classic’ just doesn’t do it for you?

A. At Dalriada School we were all grounded in Mr Gordon’s annual Shakespearean productions, an examination text was performed each December. We studied many other texts. I never studied King Lear or performed in it. I find it difficult.

Q. What do you plan to read/watch/listen to/revisit during the Coronavirus period?

Two years ago I took two books from the Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty on holiday with me. McKinty was born and grew up in Carrickfergus and wrote about The Troubles. He moved to America and based “The Chain” there. The book is about kidnapping children and has been nominated for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

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