Epilogue—How Cathleen Became Mrs. Monihan
The Epilogue follows Sara Allgood’s history of performance and contributions to theatrical texts from her early days in Inghinidhe through her film work until her death in Hollywood in1950. What appears again and again in her American film work is an aging actress from Ireland translating stillness in the face of extremity in ways that strengthen even the smallest, sometimes nameless characters against the stereotype of the emotive Irish immigrant. From her earliest days in Inghinidhe, Allgood was part of a project to provide steadying images of Ireland against British melodrama and cartoons; her film work in America continued this work in nearly one hundred film roles. From her unpublished “Memories” and her surviving films, Sara Allgood emerges as a woman focused on creating theater and film, not simply taking direction. Her contribution to both mediums, a refusal to overact, and a gravity and stillness, educates the audience about what to expect of an Irish woman. Tracing the afterlife of her street theater and Abbey career into her later film work may restore some attention to a performer who developed the Abbey Stare for particular ends, revising established readings of both gender and nation in Ireland and America.