I’ve been fuming alot lately... by Eleanor Methven

Gloria Steinem has a mantra that she says she lives by. She calls it “Ask the Turtle,” because it involves a turtle she rescued or thought she had, while on a geology-class field trip during her freshman year at Smith. Whilst walking a riverbed, she saw a big snapping turtle high up on the dry riverbank, up by the road.  Compassionately, helpfully, confident in her superior-species abilities, she picked it up and carefully carried it down to where it would obviously be more comfortable, to where she decided it needed to go and slipped it into the river. Her professor came along as the turtle entered the water and said: “Have you any idea how long, and how much effort, it took that turtle to get up that bank to go lay its eggs?”

Steinem often humorously quotes this story as a foundation lesson for her early activism. If you want to know how you can help the turtle, always ask the turtle first.

I cannot imagine how the women who have spoken out in the past week could have done so without Grace and Annette first coming forward in public.

They and others who have experienced abuse of power at The Gate Theatre should not feel obliged to honour the Board of that theatre’s turtle-lifting intention to be the depository of their confidences. Some of the same people still sit in governance on the Board which presided over this culture of abuse, and who also permitted the ex-employee now accused of the abuse to sit on that Board alongside them. That being the case, it is entirely understandable that the women who originally spoke out have no confidence in its moral authority to conduct any kind of impartial investigation or audit. Nor will bringing in HR companies whose services are paid for by that Board allay any fears of cover-up or whitewash. The idea of offering any system prescribed by this current board, as the sole depository for these people’s experiences, is morally bankrupt.

If the new Artistic Director, Selina Cartmell, is to be permitted to function and thrive, with the confidence she deserves to have from the artistic community who are her peers and collaborators, and from the funding bodies that have channelled public money into this droit de seigneur system for years, then the current board of The Gate must go.

I salute each and every one of the women who has come forward, for their courage, for their integrity in doing so: for it is their integrity which was the target of the abuse, their sense of themselves as a whole and having agency over their own lives. I hope that they have gone some way to regain that integrity and to take control again; they have my deep respect, good for them.

They did not let this happen to them, they were targeted. The impression given, most startlingly clearly in the Irish Times last Saturday, was of a man’s need to keep anxieties about his own inadequacy at bay by bullying young women: to soothe his own insecurities by sucking on their discomfort and easy humiliation; and to dismiss any attempt to reason with him or have him conform to basic standards of civilised behaviour, never mind employment law. It was observed by others, it was connived at by others, it appears other men felt able to join in. It is fear of and hatred for women manifested in abuse of power in the workplace and in Irish life. It is pathetic. It is beneath contempt. It is illegal.

The grooming and brainwashing that seems to have gone on at The Gate are essential tools to sustain these men in their own belief that they are God, and that women (in particular) are there to serve them. “She’ll never work in this town again!” Oh please. What utter embarrassingly cliched, risibly grandiose, bullshit. But, given this emerging evidence of a toxic culture, it is concerning that a lot of younger people started off in Gate Christmas shows as child actors and that a lot of actors just starting out would be used in these annual coffer-fillers. What if this is where you ‘grow up’. What if this is where you learn how it is? Perhaps, if this behavior is the template you’re given early on for acceptable conduct in the professional Irish theatre world, it explains the lack of actresses coming forward publicly, (with the always honourable exception of Ali White, who did not ‘start off’ in The Gate, and certainly works elsewhere). Perhaps there is an element of Stockholm syndrome; or a fear of being ejected from the dysfunctional family; or misplaced loyalty; or still having a fear of the person who manipulated and bullied you; or maybe a thought that this is somehow normal; or that  playing along with it, the safest option at the time, seems like complicity and that saying no to it now won’t be heard. These women who have spoken deserve our acknowledgment of their truth, and together we reveal the quotidian and banal nature of this harm to women.

Maybe some other ‘senior’ actresses could join me in supporting the younger women here, on this blog? Let them know that if they have something to say, whether they feel able to post publicly as Grace and the others have done, or if they simply wish to tell someone privately - that is their choice, and you will respect their choice - you will see them, you will hear them and, crucially, you will believe them. I don’t believe that any company, any Director worth collaborating with, would discriminate against you in any way for offering your support.

Wouldn’t it be bad enough if it was just in The Gate? Bad enough if Theatre were the only branch of our industry to be affected? What about the (in this country) relatively newer media? Film and Television; allied ‘workshops’; and casting sessions; what if things that shouldn’t happen, happen in these situations? The Fear would also exist, of being seen as difficult or a troublemaker, if you speak out about inappropriate behavior by Directors, Producers and ‘Workshop Leaders’ in these situations.

It would be most helpful if our Casting Directors and Actors’ Agents moved to publicly assure people that they are part of the solution, as I am absolutely confident they would want to be. I imagine they would be horrified that a young actor would think otherwise, but if you’re just starting out in this highly competitive and, therefore, vulnerable workforce, you don’t know that.

The Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht: what will the Minister do to ensure that monies are not being dispersed to any Arts organization, administrative or producing, which tolerates bullying, intimidation, or sexual harassment in the workplace?

Can we please not employ yet another PR/HR firm to handle this? Enough with spending public money that way, The Arts sector is awash with female talent that it chews up and spits out before it can get near the top jobs. There are some very talented and eminently qualified Turtles, pay them to do it.

Eleanor Methven

Eleanor was co-founder of the award-winning Charabanc Theatre Company. In 1993 she received an EMA Best Actress Award for her work with the company, where she remained as Co-Artistic Director until 1995. Theatre credits include The Shape of Metal, Barbaric Comedies, Tartuffe, The Wild Duck and Hamlet at the Abbey and Peacock Theatres, Rough Magic’s award-winning production of Pentecost (Dublin Theatre Festival, Irish and British Tour, Donmar Warehouse, London). Shadow of a Gunman, Weddins, Weein and Wakes, The Factory Girls and Conversations on a Homecomingfor the Lyric Theatre, Belfast and Our Father (Almeida). She appeared in the Gate Theatre’s production of Jane Eyre directed by Alan Stanford and inAll’s Well That Ends Well directed by Andy Hinds for CSIIreland. Eleanor received an Irish Times/ESB Best Actress Award in 2003 for her role as Maggie in Dancing at Lughnasa produced by An Grianan Theatre. Eleanor appeared in Paul Mercier’s Homelands at the Abbey Theatre Dublin. She appeared in Druid Theatre’s production of The Year of the Hiker directed by Garry Hynes for Druid Theatre Company on national tour. Eleanor appeared in Don Carlos for Rough Magic Theatre company (directed by Lynne Parker), Scenes From The Big Picture for Prime Cut Theatre Company, directed by Conall Morrisson, Unravelling the Ribbon for Guna Nua Theatre Company and Saved at the Peacock Theatre, directed by Jimmy Fay for which won a Best Supporting Actress Award from the 2008 Irish Times Theatre Awards. Eleanor appeared in The Recruiting Officer at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, directed by Lynne Parker and as Lily in Pentecost directed by Lynne Parker for the Rough Magic/Lyric Theatre Belfast co-productionThe Parker Project in Dublin and Belfast. She appeared as Lilian in You Are Here produced by Living Space theatre company for Dublin Theatre Festival 2008 and in_ Solemn Mass For A Full Moon In Summer_ directed by Tom Creed for Rough Magic Theatre Company at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot directed by Matt Tormey at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin.Eleanor appeared in Christ Deliver Us! a new play by Tom Kilroy directed by Wayne Jordan at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin and in No Escape directed by Roisin McBrinn as part of the Peacock Theatres Darkest Corner Season. Eleanor appeared in Rough Magic’s hugely successful production of The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Lynne Parker at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin for which she won an Irish Times Theatre Best Supporting Actress Award in 2011. She appeared as in the Abbey Theatre’s celebrated production of Pygmalion directed by Annabelle Comyn and in Rough Magic’s acclaimed production of Plaza Suite at the Pavillion Theatre, Dun Laoighaire which went on to a national Irish tour and a transfer to the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin in 2012. She appeared as the role of Lady Britomart in Major Barbara directed by Annabelle Comyn in the Abbey Theatre. She appeared in The Critic directed by Lynne Parker in the Dublin Theatre Festival. She appeared in Pride and Prejudice as the role of Mrs Bennet in the Gate theatre. Eleanor appeared in Prime Cut Production’s Chilean Trilogy, Tejas Verdes by Fermin Cabal and Discurso by Guillermo Calderon. Eleanor appeared in Rough Magic’s production of Famished Castle by Hilary Fannin. Eleanor Recently appeared as Mrs Clandon in the Abbey’s production of You Never Can Tell directed by Conall Morrison.

Television and film work includes: The Clinic (as recurring character Dervla Rodgers), Zonad, Murphy’s Law, Small Engine Repair, Becoming Jane, The Snapper, The Disappearance of Finbar, The Boxer, Falling For A Dancer, Just in Time, Mad About Mambo, A Love Divided, The Ambassador, DDU, Disco Pigs, Baby Wars and The Return. Eleanor played Eileen Kirwan in the new TV series Love is A Drug directed by Darren Thornton for RTE for which she was nominated for an IFTA in 2005. Eleanor appeared in the new Irish feature film Wide Open Spaces written by Arthur Mathews and directed by Tom Hall and in the independent feature Sensation written and directed by Tom Hall and appeared in the comedy drama TV series An Crisis for Wildfire Films/TG4. Eleanor appeared as a series regular role of Lady Pirrie opposite Derek Jacobi in the TV series Titanic: Blood and Steel (DAP/De Angelis Group) which aired in 2012. Eleanor appears in Ice Cream Girls as the role of Liz directed by Dan Zeff and on Reign a CW Network produced TV Series directed by Brad Silberling.
Eleanor appeared in Amber directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan and will soon appear as Miriam in The Truth Commissioner.