Cafe curtain call

Its theatre became a central part of Bewley's Grafton Street branch. What does closure mean for its director, asks Rosita Boland.

When Bewley's Oriental Cafés finally close their doors, it is not only the coffee shops that will close for ever. The theatre in the Oriental Room of the Grafton Street branch, which specialises in lunchtime shows and evening cabarets, will also go dark.

The Oriental Room, which overlooks Grafton Street, is painted dark green: a big, gracious space. There are long red curtains at the windows and two fireplaces. Like those downstairs, where the most sought-after seats are located in winter, these fireplaces are also in working order and are often used. Sometimes, as for a production of George Bernard Shaw's How He Lied To Her Husband, the fireplaces form part of the set, the actors sitting by the open fire: an instant period drawing room.

This room has been used by Bewley's as a space for theatre for 10 years. The first production was a double bill of Strindberg's The Stronger and Pirandello's The Man With A Flower In His Mouth, both adapted by Frank McGuinness. In the beginning it was used informally, with different companies using the space from time to time. In 1999, after a refurbishment of the space, the actor and director Michael James Ford was appointed artistic director of Bewley's Café Theatre.

"I had an informal meeting with Kelly Campbell" - daughter of Patrick Campbell, the group's chairman - "who is an actor and was anxious to get the theatre going properly again," he says. The result was a designated director for the space, who could then programme and oversee the productions.

Bewleys Café Theatre became a consistent performance space, particularly for lunchtime theatre, where audiences get soup and sandwiches along with their side order of culture. "You couldn't replace the atmosphere even if you had lunchtime theatre elsewhere," he says.

Since 1999 the 55-seat café has produced dozens of shows, including Too Much Of Nothing, by Mark O'Halloran and David Wilmot, in 1999, Excitement, by Maeve Binchy (and directed by Gerry Stembridge), Lovely Betty, directed by Karen Egan, Fred And Jane, by Sebastian Barry, So Long Sleeping Beauty, by Isobel Mahon, The Lost Letters Of A Victorian Lady, by Michelle Read, and Jimmy Joyced! by Donal O'Kelly.

The Oriental Room is not the only space in central Dublin whose original purpose was to serve food but is now a theatre. "The Gate was built as a supper room," Ford points out. "And yet it works wonderfully well as a theatre."

He adds: "Bewley's is a very old building, and strange things sometimes happen during shows." He indicates the high ceiling. "There is a staff changing room overhead, and sometimes a tap has been left on by mistake and water has cascaded down on the punters." Also, café staff occasionally walk in on shows by mistake, en route to somewhere else in the building.

"You have to keep an ear out for the buskers," Ford says sagely. "Especially the Fields Of Athenry boys. If a busker starts up during a show, outside the café, someone will run down and explain to them. Usually, they are fine about it, but it can be a right headache."

Over the piano, in one corner of the room, is a tiger's head. Oriental Room, indeed. Ford explains that it is a prop left over from a recent show: Buridan's Ass, a comedy about a philandering taxidermist by S. R. Plant, which ran during Dublin Fringe Festival, starring Arthur Riordan and Frank Bourke. "We had lots of different heads here for the show," Ford says. The tiger's head is still on the premises because it is going to be given to Plant in lieu of a royalty: a very theatrical kind of barter.

The most successful show the café has hosted was the recent run of Tick My Box!, by Inis Theatre Company, again as part of Dublin Fringe Festival. "It was about speed dating. It sold out overnight. It seemed to capture the Zeitgeist of the interpersonal relationships."

While Ford is mid-sentence the door opens and two people come in. One introduces herself as being from Bewley's. She is accompanied by a man with a camera. They apologise politely for interrupting, then tour the room quietly, making notes, taking photographs and studying dimensions. They leave.

Ford goes silent, looking at the door closing behind them. It couldn't be a starker reminder of the imminent closure of Bewley's. I find myself wondering what kind of eyes the two visitors were looking at the room through. As a potential space to sell dresses? Shoes? Make-up? Accessories?

Ford sighs. He had pencilled in productions for the first half of 2005 before the news broke. Now they are in abeyance. As a farewell show Bewley's Café Theatre will restage a previous successful production, Oscar Wilde's The Remarkable Rocket, performed by Ford and directed by Trevor Knight.

"With the closure of Bewley's it's an appropriate show to be going out on," Ford says gloomily. "A rocket exploding in broad daylight and nobody noticing."

Bewley's Café Theatre's current lunchtime show, at 1.10 p.m. until Saturday, is Two For A Girl, presented by Skipalong Theatre Company; Playing Burton is on each evening, at 8 p.m.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Michael Conaghan, will launch a campaign to save Bewley's Oriental Cafés outside the Grafton Street branch on Wednesday