A Tribute to Maureen Dow
The Lyric are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Maureen Dow who was one of the most prolific Lyric Players during the 1970s and 1980s, overall appearing in at least 38 Lyric Theatre productions throughout her career.
This ranged from her very first Lyric appearance in 1967, when Maureen played Mona Shine in Eugene McCabe’s drama Breakdown, and in 1971 in The Silver Tassie directed by our founder Mary O’Malley, through to 1996 when she appeared in Philadelphia, Here I Come! directed by David Grant, and also featuring Richard Dormer, Ruairi Conaghan and Brenda Winter.
Maureen was a student at both Guildhall and London Trinity Colleges in the mid-sixties and she made her debut at the Group Theatre, Belfast in 1962. During the 1970s alone she performed in 25 Lyric productions, including as a Kit Kat Girl in the musical Cabaret in 1974/75 directed by Michael Poynor and with musical direction by John Anderson. She played Lily in Tom Coffey’s allegorical It Would Be Funny…( If It Wasn’t So Bloody Ridiculous) in March 1975 and later the same year she was a village girl in director Sam McCready’s adaptation of The Playboy of the Western World, with Stella McCusker as Pegeen Mike.
She played alongside Liam Neeson in the Lyric’s 1976 production of The Risen People, and the following year played Helen, in a revival of Edna O’Brien’s family drama The Gathering, with Liam as her brother Terry.
Other notable productions in the 80s and 90s included appearing in the premiere of Martin Lynch’s Dockers, directed by Sam McCready at the Lyric in January 1981 and in Robin Glendinning’s Mumbo Jumbo in January 1987. In 1993 Maureen starred alongside Ruairi Conaghan, Catriona Hinds and Abbie Spallen in Put Out That Light, and in 1994 she played Dolly, long-suffering wife of John Hewitt’s Drumm, in Robin Midgley’s touring production of Hugh Leonard’s A Life. In her last appearance with the Lyric, Maureen appeared as loyal housekeeper Madge, in Brian Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come!, starring Peter O’Meara and Ruairi Conaghan as Gar O’Donnell Public and Private in 1996.
We are very grateful to Maureen for her long and significant association with the Lyric Players, and send our sincere condolences to her family and friends.
