«What I recall from the opening night of Focus productions is a powerful sense, not only of a period and place, but of a set of lives, relationships, conflicts and dramas having been created on stage. The fact that what happened on stage was based on technique lifted the achievement of The Focus Theatre and the contributions of Deirdre O’Connell beyond any individual or occasional brilliance. A new approach to theatre was being launched. A theory and practice based on the work of Konstantin Stanislavski was being made available to Irish theatre.» (Michael D. Higgins, 2001).