In the New Hot Press... The Gate's Michael Colgan On Love, Loss, and Theatre

Michael Colgan was the artistic director of The Gate for 33 years and went through a hell of a lot during the span of his career.

"I remember being with my Dad, as a child, passing Trinity and there was a guy with a jockey cap. I said, ‘Can we go in there?’ and I remember him saying, ‘We’re not allowed. You have to be a Protestant and you have to be a student’. And I said, ‘What’s that then?’ And he said, ‘Oh, you have to be very clever’. And then I got my Leaving. I rang him and he said, ‘You have done well. What do you want to do’? And I said, ‘I want to go to Trinity’. He said, ‘You’ll get excommunicated because you have to get permission from John Charles’. And I said, ‘If they excommunicate me I’m not going to turn up for the ceremony’. He said, ‘No. It’s automatic!’ I said, ‘I’ll take that chance’."

He was quite the ladies' man...

"I had a very big libido! I loved women – I still love women. My first girlfriend was from first year at Trinity. She’s still alive. We still send birthday cards and Christmas cards to each other. She lives in London."

And had a penchant for busting on Paul McGuinness...

"McGuinness was trying to act – he couldn’t act for toffee. I decided to make it difficult for McGuinness. We made him play a Frenchman. And we said, ‘You have to get the French accent.’ He kept trying it. And I said, ‘No. You better work on it.’ And then when Paolo and I were writing the script – we’d get him to say ‘round the ragged rock!’ ‘What’s this? Paul said. I said,‘It’s part of the fucking plot’."

Read the full interview in the latest issue of Hot Press!

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