The Abbey's upstairs bar was filled to capacity this week for disclosure of the theatre's 2003 programme. Actors, writers and directors gathered to hear the artistic director of the National Theatre, Ben Barnes, announce upcoming productions and developments.
"The spirit within the family that is the Abbey has lifted," said Eithne Healy, chairwoman of the Abbey board, referring in particular to the planned building programme for the national theatre at its existing location.
A number of new plays are planned too, including one by Hilary Fannin. Holding her baby son, Jacob Newington, in her arms, she said her play, Doldrum Bay, which opens in the Peacock in May, involves relationships which are difficult to maintain and the story of two ad men who are commissioned to write a campaign for the Christian Brothers.
Tom Kilroy's new play, which is scheduled for production at this year's theatre festival, is The Shape of Metal. "There's a very simple centre to it about the way in which a daughter can remain by her mother's side after the most horrendous revelations," he said.
Martin Drury is all set to direct Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, with Rosaleen Linehan as the matriarch. Rehearsals begin in March and the play opens in April.
Actor Tina Kellegher chatted to director Mark Lambert, who recently directed a six-part BBC radio series, called Baldi, which will be broadcast on Radio 4 from Friday, March 14th. The cast includes Kellegher playing the female lead, David Threlfal as the monk on sabbatical who sets about solving the mysterious murder, as well as Sorcha Cusack, Martin Clunes, David Kelly and Geraldine James.
Amid the throng was handsome Scottish actor, James Watson, who plays the lead in a new feature film, The Bone Hunter, which will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Joe Dowling, who has worked for the past month as director of Arthur Miller's play, All My Sons, was preparing for opening night, this week.
He'll jet back to Minneapolis on Sunday to his job as artistic director of The Guthrie Centre, with his wife, Siobhán Cleary, whose career as a television presenter and producer has thrived in the US with a TV programme called Health Diary. It has won a number of awards, including a prestigious national Gracie Award last year.