Dear friends,

It is my great pleasure to join you all this evening in this beloved theatre, where so many memories of dramatic triumphs "linger like nostalgic ghosts"; it is a pleasure to be on this stage, where, evening after evening, the overwhelming, the tragic, the absurd, the comic, the magical, are brought to life; and it is, of course, a particular pleasure to have this opportunity to bid farewell to Michael Colgan through this magnificent tribute to three giants among…