Description
The Ulster Group Theatre was founded in 1940 when three amateur groups, the Ulster Theatre, the Northern Irish Players, and the Jewish Institute Dramatic Society, came together to individually stage a season of plays at Belfast’s Ulster Minor Hall under the collective umbrella title, the Ulster Group Theatre. This proved successful, and it was decided to establish an amalgamated company with a collective identity, the Ulster Theatre alone withdrawing.
The Ulster Group Theatre proper thereby began in September 1940, and would endure for some 20 years. The Minor Hall venue at Bedford Street rapidly became known as the Group Theatre, and this tiny space became Northern Ireland’s home of new writing in the mid-twentieth century, with programmes combining new work with classics and international drama. Writers strongly associated with the company included St. John Ervine, George Shiels, and Joseph Tomelty, while the Group also premiered work by Louis MacNeice, John Murphy, and Brian Friel. The company was praised for its naturalistic acting style, and some of its performers went on to become well-known figures in Northern Ireland and beyond.
By the late 1950s, however, the company faced considerable funding difficulties, as well as the challenge of the new television medium. A highly controversial decision by the company’s board to withdraw a play by Sam Thompson, ‘Over the Bridge’, made front page news and ultimately triggered the collapse of the Group company. Many long-standing members left, and the close repertory ensemble system effectively ended.
The theatre building was subsequently offered to comedian and actor James Young, who together with Jack Hudson rapidly made it the new ‘Home of Ulster Comedy’. For the next decade, the Group saw premieres of long-running and hugely popular comedies by John McDonnell, as well as solo shows by Young himself.