User:Projectpage/sandbox

Career

Eithne Dunne began her career in theatre with the Abbey school of acting in 1939. She performed in the Abbey theatre alongside Cyril Cusack, F. J. McCormick, and Ria Mooney in plays produced by Paul Vincent Carroll and George Shiels. She was highly praised for her performance as Cathy in the stage adaptation of ‘Wuthering Heights’. In 1943 she acted in ‘Thy dear father’, the first play written by her husband Gerard Healy. In early 1945, she left the Abbey with a group of players, as they were unhappy with the policies of the national theatre. Soon after they formed the 'Players’ Theatre', with the aim of producing new Irish plays. They achieved success in both the Cork Opera House and the Gate with Healy's ‘The black stranger’, in which Dunne took the leading role.

One of the clear highlights of her career was when she played Pegeen Mike in ‘The Playboy Of The Western World’ by J. M. Synge, opposite Burgess Meredith on Broadway in 1946–7. The production was staged at the Mercury Theatre in London and received outstanding reviews. From the mid-1940s through to the 1950s, Dunne had part-time positions with the Radio Éireann Players and Longford Productions.

She played Ophelia in MacLiammóir's production of Hamlet at Elsinore in 1952. She was highly regarded for playing the part of St Joan in 'The lark', a play written by Jean Anouilhs and directed by Edwards and MacLiammói r in 1955. Throughout the 1950s and 60s she worked in cinema and television. Screen appearances included the risible stage-Irish production, ‘She didn't say no!’ (1958) along with James Cagney's 1959 thriller, ‘Shake hands with the devil’. Her last performance was in the Dublin theatre festival production of Tom Murphy's 'The Morning After Optimism'.