Kate O’Toole: ‘My father didn’t get to see me in the play as he was too unwell to travel – he would have adored it’

The daughter of Peter O’Toole and Sian Phillips remembers why playing Mrs Leaf in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ at the Abbey theatre was such a gift

Kate O'Toole and Tom Canton in the 2012 Abbey Theatre production of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

Barry Egan

Neil Bartlett’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel for the Abbey theatre in Dublin in 2012 had the Guardian’s Lyn Gardner reporting how the play was “mostly about our illusions about ourselves. It glitters artfully; it leaves us desolate”.

Kate O’Toole (64) gave a performance as Mrs Leaf, Dorian’s housekeeper, of which her actor parents Peter O’Toole and Sian Phillips would have been proud.