Jonathan White pays a fond tribute to his friend and colleague, Cork-born actor Derry Power, a memorable presence on stage, screen, and television over more than six decades, who has died aged 90.
I first saw Derry Power onstage in 1971 – The Patrick Pearse Motel, a Hugh Leonard farce which neatly skewered the craw-thumping patriotism of the time. In a cast chock-full of Irish theatre comedy royalty (Rosaleen Linehan, Frank Kelly, Godfrey Quigley, May Cluskey) Derry's performance as an ancient, incontinent 1916 veteran, hired as a nightwatchman in the vulgar establishment of the title was the one that reduced the audience (and me) to tears of helpless laughter.
(Pic: Ros Kavanagh, courtesy of the Abbey Theatre Archive)
But have a look at his Playography Ireland page; that was only one of the outstanding world premieres of Irish works he was part of in a 60-year career: The Quare Fellow, Stephen D., The Death and Resurrection of Mr. Roche, The Dead (two different adaptations), Tarry Flynn, Buddleia not to mention Barbaric Comedies!
Now look at his IMDB page – the list is just as impressive: Ulysses, Educating Rita, Rawhead Rex, Remington Steele, My Left Foot, Far and Away, Into the West, Disco Pigs, Intermission. Derry was the Swiss army knife of Irish acting.
(Pic: Amelia Stein, courtesy of the Abbey Theatre Archive)
In my first paid stage job in 1975, I had the privilege of watching Derry and Frank Kelly up close as a double act, honing and stretching the comic possibilities of a limited piece. But my most vivid memory is an Irish language teaching programme, Anois is Aris, in the early-80s. Under the inspired direction of Tommy McArdle, the educational load was largely carried by comedy sketches which there was neither time nor budget to do proper justice to. But that didn’t stop us. Which meant there were high-wire acts to be executed on a daily basis.
(Pic: John Sarsfield, courtesy of the Abbey Theatre Archive)
I vividly remember a six-minute sketch where Derry & I, dressed as boy scouts (!), in a tent, had to perform a tightly choreographed mock horror movie with the knowledge that if one of us dropped a line or blocked a camera shot, we had to go back to the top and start again … which there was no time to do. And all this as Gaeilge. Watching it now still causes the cold sweats. But I was working with the best.
We often say his like will never be seen again. In Derry’s case, his like was never seen before either. RIP to a master among character actors.
