Taking over Tallaght

"WE'RE sending out 50 gallons of milk a day" gasps the theatre festival's Fergus D. Linehan. "About 200 Yorkie bars. About 200 litres of Ballygowan. Just to keep them going.

The Romanians have landed and Tallaght has never seen anything like it. With a cast of more than 100, Les Danaides - a lost Greek play, performed in French - which went up last night at the National Basketball Arena, is the largest theatrical production ever to have been staged in Ireland. Tickets sold out for it in a couple of days.

"We have been really, really busy, it's been really great. The public just seems to have responded to the shows in the big houses, this year," says Fergus D. He estimates there has been about 80 per cent occupancy so far, higher than predicted, and extremely good news for the organisers who had no "named" sponsor for this year's event.

Snowshow and The Comedy of Errors are mentioned, as well as Les Danaides, as big crowd pullers.

The Fringe's Jimmy Fay guesses that occupancy at the Fringe might have been about 75 per cent. One Fringe show which is bound to pack out is Stirfry, Friday's comedy club at, 11.30 pm. at the City Arts Centre, which tomorrow night celebrates a year's successful trading birthday party guests will include The Nualas, Comedy Improv, Tommy Tiernan, and the MaSamba band. But the weekend's hottest Fringe show is the Fringe Awards ceremony, which takes place at 10.30 p.m. on Saturday at the Da Club, with entertainment from Agnes Bernelle, Dermot Carmody and encore, The Nualas.

That kind of crack is alright for the mad dogs which frequent the Fringe, but this morning's Waterford Crystal Festival Choice ceremony is to be more of a tea and cakes affair. Unlike the Fringe Award, however, there's no dosh involved, just a nice trophy to put on the television: "You couldn't hand, say, Adrian Noble of the RSC £500 in an envelope," explains Fergus D. What are your comments on that, Adrian?

So now it's all nearly over, and the off stage melodrama - "I'd just love to stay in and watch TV sometime" - seems so limp. But there are still some slugs in the corner of couches who have been to nothing and have no good excuse, and to them this message: crawl out of your crevices this weekend and you might just end up voting with those who take their entertainment live.