Saturday 16 October 2010

COSTUME DESIGN BY ALPHO O'REILLY

This is a costume drawing by Alpho O'Reilly who was the Head of Design for RTE.  It was his costume projection for TP's appearance as 'Naoise' in the verse play 'Deirdre' by WB Yeats.

Brodcast by RTE in 1965 and a little while later on the new BBC2 network,  TP also starred alongside Fionnula Flanagan and Cyril Cusack.


It is a typical actor's artefact and may have been given to him by O'Reilly who was responsible also for the stage design of 'Sleuth' (1973) in which TP appeared at the Olympia and the Cork Opera House.  However, the pastel sketch has taken on an added poignancy as Alpho O'Reilly disappeared in wholly unexplained circumstances in 1996. 


He had lived contentedly with his sister to whom he was devoted in a house facing Sandymout Strand, however she had recently passed away.


He was last seen getting petrol for his car early one morning at a service station in Ashford, Co.Wicklow, and then heading off in the direction of Wexford;  and that was the last that was ever known of him or his car.

He lives on in this image though, because the celtic scrolls that decorate the background are actually charicatures of the designer.

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