Gabriel Byrne is looking a bit flustered. After two changes of seating - he'd been sitting in the wrong seat first and then decided to move from the front row to a less obvious location - he has finally settled in to watch his friend, actor Sean Lawlor, on the opening night of Jimmy Murphy's new play, The Kings of Kilburn High Road.
The playwright himself is a bag of nerves before the Red Kettle Theatre Company production, and he claims the nerves is made worse by the star-studded audience packing the bar at Andrews Lane Theatre. Director Jim Nolan is biting his nails too. Glenroe's Mick Lally, playwrights Bernard Farrell and Fergus Linehan, former director of the Dublin Theatre Festival Tony O'Dalaigh, id Dukes, director of the Civic Theatre in Tallaght, Brid Dukes, RTE's Larry Gogan with wife Florie and celebrity fitness guru Pat Henry are among the crowd of well-wishers.
Jimmy Murphy needn't have worried - his play is ultimately pronounced powerful and touching and receives a standing ovation. Film censor Sheamus Smith confesses the play - about five Mayomen in London looking back on their lives - touched a soft spot with him, and "being from the west of Ireland I have a particular interest". Actress Doreen Keogh, of the Royle Family and Father Ted, says it was a wonderfully moving play.