- Gregan McMahon
Gregan McMahon,
CBE (2 March 1874 -30 August 1941 ) was anAustralia n actor andtheatrical producer .McMahon's parents were emigrants from
Ireland ; his father was in the civil service. McMahon was educated atSydney Grammar School andSt Ignatius' College, Riverview . McMahon played in the Riverview football team, and took first-class honours in classics at his matriculation examination. McMahon graduated with aB.A. at theUniversity of Sydney in 1896 and during his course, established a reputation as an amateur actor — a critic on one occasion spoke of his performance being so artistic that he seemed like a professional in a company of amateurs.At the conclusion of his university course, McMahon was articled to a firm of solicitors at
Sydney , and remained with them for some years, but in May 1900 was invited by Robert Brough to join his comedy company. His first professional appearance was as the waiter in "The Liars" atBrisbane in the beginning of June, and during the next 12 months he toured in the east playing a variety of small parts. Returning to Australia he played with the W. F. Hawtrey and Brough companies, and, by 1902 he was playing larger roles, including that of "Horace Parker", in "A Message from Mars".Seasons followed in
New Zealand and Australia, largely in companies under theJ. C. Williamson management. Early in 1911 McMahon, who had been playing inMelbourne , organized a repertory theatre movement. The first performances took place in June, the plays selected beingSt John Hankin 's "The Two Mr Wetherbys", the second act of Sheridan's The Critic, and Ibsen's "John Gabriel Borkman ".Among the plays McMahon produced from 1911-1917 were "Candida", "Getting Married", "Major Barbara", "The Doctor's Dilemma", "
Man and Superman ", "Fanny's First Play", "You Never Can Tell", and "Pygmalion", all byGeorge Bernard Shaw ; "Rosmersholm " and "An Enemy of the People " byHenrik Ibsen ; "The Voysey Inheritance " and "The Madras House" byGranville Barker ; "The Pigeon", "Strife" and "The Fugitive" by Galsworthy; "The Seagull " byAnton Chekhov ; "The Mate" byArthur Schnitzler , and many other plays by leading dramatists of the period, including several by Australian authors.The 1914-18 war, however, made difficulties, several leading actors enlisted, and by 1918 the public was giving distinctly less support to the movement which had to be abandoned for a period.
McMahon then returned to the professional stage and acted as producer for Williamson and other managers. In 1920 he arranged with the Messrs Tait to start a repertory movement in Sydney. This was carried on for several years, the productions including "The Dover Road" by Milne; "Abraham Lincoln" by John Drinkwater; Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman;
Franz Molnar 's "Liliom "; Galsworthy's "Foundations", "Loyalties", and "Windows"; and many others.In Melbourne in 1929 McMahon revived the repertory movement under the name of the "Gregan McMahon Players" and in 11 years placed about 90 plays on the stage, including several of the later Shaw plays; Pirandello's "Right You Are" and "
Six Characters in Search of an Author "; several plays byJames Bridie ; and others by Galsworthy, Drinkwater,W. Somerset Maugham ,G. K. Chesterton ,Eugene O'Neill ,Sean O'Casey , Daviot and Casella, in the presentation of which a generally high standard was reached. In spite of difficulties caused by war breaking out again, McMahon was still keeping up his standard of production when he died suddenly on30 August 1941 .He was survived by his wife, Mary Hungerford McMahon, whom he had married in 1899, and a son and a daughter. He was created
CBE in 1938.References
*Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=Gregan|Last=McMahon|Link=http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogMc.html#mcmahon1
*Allan Ashbolt, ' [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100328b.htm McMahon, Gregan (1874-1941)] ',Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 10, MUP, 1986, pp 336-337.
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