OnTheTown: Fiona McCannThe timely appearance of the sun was hailed as an excellent omen by those who turned out in Merrion Square to hear details of the packed programme for this year's Dublin Theatre Festival.
For the festival's artistic director and chief executive Loughlin Deegan, the choice of the city centre square for the launch was an important statement about the identity of the festival, which this year celebrates its 50th birthday. "It's about Dublin and it's for Dublin, so it's also important that we're in the heart of Dublin," he sad.
Actors, directors, playwrights and theatre fans swarmed the marquee flicking through the programme of 33 productions as canapes and champagne circulated.
Actor Stephen Brennan was impressed. "It's very hard to get the mix right in a big festival like this, but there's wonderful variety here," he said. He was particularly interested in Roddy Doyle's reworking of The Playboy of the Western World. However, the writer himself refused to give anything away, promising only that it would be "very funny".
Actor Karl Shiels, who plays the male lead in Sebastian Barry's The Pride of Parnell Street, was at the launch as were actor Sean McGinley and his wife, Marie Mullen, who stars with US actor James Cromwell in the Druid production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.
Actress and writer Pauline McLynn, MC for the event, expressed her fear that the festival might enter a midlife crisis, given its age. "It would start to drink too much and begin to date younger festivals," she said. "So hopefully, 50 is the new 30."
For festival chairman Peter Crowley the summer setting of Merrion Square was a sign of how far the festival has come over its 50 years. "I've launched the festival in some pokey, grotty places over the years, so you're definitely getting the best out of it this year," he told the assembled guests.
Big names pack the 'Big House'
The big names from Irish theatre were at The Big House opening night at the Abbey this week - the long-awaited new production of a work which premiered at the same theatre in 1926. Many were eager to see how the Lennox Robinson play would translate for contemporary audiences.
For actor Alan Stanford, there was no chance of disappointment given that The Big House is what he called "one of those very rare things - a well-written play". He said it was still pertinent for audiences today. "It's about change and how change affects us," he said.
Wayne Jordan agreed that many of its themes have a contemporary relevance. "It's about people dealing with occupation, so it's got resonance regarding political situations in other parts of the world today. And some of it is quite beautifully poetic."
Playwright Bernard Farrell, had his own personal memory of Cork-born Robinson, who contributed 22 original plays to the Abbey canon before his death in 1958. "I used to go to school in Monkstown and when I was a young boy I saw Lennox Robinson. He was a very tall man with a dog," he recalled.
Writer Deirdre Purcell also had a personal connection with the playwright. "I made my own debut in a Lennox Robinson play here, in Drama at Inish, so he has a particular resonance for me," she said.
Patrick Mason, the Abbey's artistic director from 1993 to 1999, said he had attempted to revive some plays from the same period during his time at the theatre's helm, but found audiences were not ready for them then. "I'm delighted we're getting a chance to see these plays. What's wrong with looking at old plays if they're good plays?"
Gate Theatre director Michael Colgan and director and playwright Tomas Mac Anna were also in attendance, as were actors Pat Laffan, Ingrid Craigie and Declan Conlon.
"It's about time Lennox got another go at the cherry," said playwright and writer Hugh Leonard.
The Big House runs at The Abbey until Sept 8
Art on a grand sceal
An exhibition of paintings by journalist-turned-artist Brighid McLaughlin was unveiled at Leinster Gallery, Dublin, this week before a throng of her friends and fans. McLaughlin has been painting all her life but only began working at it full time two years ago when she left a career as a journalist with the Sunday Independent. "I had a wonderful time as a journalist, but painting has given me total peace," McLaughlin said.
Her work, located firmly in the tradition of primitive or naive art, has a childlike quality, McLaughlin acknowledges. "I love the simplicity of childhood, the fun of it," she said. While admitting that behind the fun, there was an evident darkness in her paintings, McLaughlin - who says her heroes are artist Greta Bowen and James Dixon - pointed to an underlying fortitude that she hopes is coming to the fore in her work. "There's a lot of darkness in the paintings, but a lot of strength shows through," she said.
The show, entitled Scéal Eile, is McLaughlin's second solo exhibition at the Leinster Gallery, a burst of bright oil paintings depicting simply-drawn characters in Aran jumpers against seascapes and stark, cold landscapes. Titles such as High Drama and What Lies Beneath add weight to a lightness of touch that characterises her work.
Journalist John Waters was on hand to formally open the show, paying tribute to McLaughlin's talent. "I find the paintings very moving. They're like cartoons for the spirit. There's a great sense of truth to them, and a sense of awareness."
According the CEO of Dublin Civic Trust Geraldine Walsh, McLaughlin is an artist of some prominence. "She's one of the few - maybe the only primitive or naive artist in Ireland at the moment. There's a childlike element in her work, the simplicity of experiencing something through a child's mind which we tend to lose as adults." Loretta Meagher, owner of Leinster Gallery, said she was delighted to show McLaughlin's work. "There's a story with every painting, and I really like her colours," she said.
Businessman Graham O'Donnell said the story-telling element was a key component of McLaughlin's work. "Brighid's painting is all about story-telling. Her ability to tell stories is unparalleled," he said.
Brighid McLaughlin's Scéal Eile will be showing at the Leinster Gallery, 27 South Frederick Street, Dublin 2, until Wed, Aug 8
The final curtain
A packed house paid tribute to the much-loved Andrews Lane theatre this week as it took its final bow. Owner Pat Moylan admitted to feeling "a little nostalgic and a little bit weepy" as the curtain rose on a full house for the Dublin theatre's last show, 84 Charing Cross Road.
The lights went up after the closing lines to prolonged applause as Moylan was invited on to the stage by her partner in Lane Productions, Breda Cashe, who said she was devastated to see the theatre closing. "It's been our home for a long time," she said.
As the champagne flowed, actors Una Crawford-O'Brien, Brian Murray and Susan Fitzgerald toasted the theatre which has hosted numerous memorable performances since it was opened in 1989 by Maureen Potter.
Playwright Peter Sheridan, chairman of the theatre's advisory board spoke of a "a huge degree of sadness". "We survived for 19 years, but the landscape of Dublin has changed," he said.
Actors Jim Bartley and Jeananne Crowley, who starred in the first show staged at the theatre, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, were also on hand for its last.
"We have very happy memories of rehearsing the first play - about an hour before we went on, the carpenters were still putting the stage together," recalled Bartley.
They were joined by some of the city's up-and-coming young talents, Georgina Carrigan and Eleanor Boyce, who produced and starred in Airswimming in Andrews Lane's studio space, and City Arts Officer Jack Gilligan, for whom the theatre's closure was a great loss.
"It has served the city very well and it's a pity," he said.
For director Terry Byrne, it was a privilege to direct last show. "It's an occasion of considerable poignancy and heartache for many of us, me included," he said.
Karen Ardiff, who played the protagonist Helene Hanff in 84 Charing Cross Road and delivered the final lines from the stage which has been graced by actors such as John Hurt and Rosaleen Linehan before her, described the closure of the theatre as an "incalculable loss" for professional and amateur theatre in Ireland.
"If you went up in a rocket and looked down at all the spaces below, there'd be tiny dots of light for those spaces just for telling and receiving stories," she said. "Tonight, one of those lights is being switched off."