Actors, directors and a host of other theatre folk gathered in Dublin this week for the launch of a new book by Christopher Fitz-Simon about the Abbey Theatre.
"It's a pictorial survey of the first 100 years of the Abbey with a little text but more pictures," he said. "There have been almost 800 new plays produced here . . . The challenge was one of selection."
Many of those who feature in the book were present in the upstairs bar of the theatre. Ingrid Craigie and Des Cave came in having just finished rehearsals for Aristocrats, which opens next week at the national theatre.
Others from the theatrical community included Olwen Fouere, just back from a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris; Marie Rooney, deputy director of the Gate Theatre; actor David Kelly and his wife, Laurie Morton; Geraldine Plunkett, actor; and Phyllis Ryan, director and producer; playwrights Jimmy Murphy, Bernard Farrell and Tom McIntyre, who described his own recent novel, Story of a Girl, as "properly wild"; fellow Cavan native Derbhle Crotty and Derry Power, who is currently touring with John B. Keane's Moll, which opens in Ennis's Glór next Monday before going on to Galway the following week.
Also present was John McColgan, of Tyrone and Abhann Productions, who first worked with Fitz-Simon in the 1960s on The Riordans.
Playwright Marina Carr, who launched the book, said: "Christopher has in one way or another been at the centre of the Abbey Theatre for the best part of a quarter of a century . . . He is responsible for the nurturing and encouragement of a whole generation of playwrights and . . . he was the first person in this building to take me seriously as a writer."
Then the writer himself spoke about his attachment to the theatre, which first opened its doors to the public on December 27th, 1904: "All my life, I've absorbed the Abbey," said Fitz-Simon. "I find it's my home. Even though I'm ancient and nobody working here would recognise me I always feel I'm walking in the door of my home."
The Abbey Theatre - Ireland's National Theatre: The First 100 Years, by Christopher Fitz-Simon, is published by Thames & Hudson