Wanted: fluent Irish-speakers with the sex factor. Catherine Foley sits in on auditions for the TV soap opera, Ros na Rún
Tall, handsome, tanned and intriguing - he looks a dead cert for the TV screen-test. Until he opens his mouth. His limited command of Irish means he hasn't a hope of landing a major part at this week's auditions for the highly successful TG4 soap, Ros na Rún.
Then, with a humorous glint in his eye, he offers to take his clothes off. Series producer Deirdre Ní Fhlatharta smiles in mock disbelief, declining his proposition. There is palpable disappointment among the all-female crew in the room at having to let this sexy actor go, not least because the show is currently looking for people with that elusive "sex factor . . . to play controversial and steamy roles" in the next series, as the advertisements in the press and elsewhere declared.
So is the series producer struggling to find that winning combination of star quality and fluency in Irish?
"Absolutely," admits Ní Fhlatharta.
In spite of this difficulty, there has been a "huge response" to the advertisement from men and women of all ages, all backgrounds and all parts of the country. The auditions this week screen-tested a wide range of people, including teachers, surfers, actors, IT technicians, students and musicians, with more men than women applying.
There are plans to introduce four new characters to the series next season. However, to get a part in the soap, which has been running for 10 years and attracts 300,000 viewers a week, "a strong grasp of Irish is essential" says Ní Fhlatharta. There is no time for teaching Irish on set.
Pádraig Mac Donnchadha, from Salthill in Galway, who has given up his nine-to-five job in a computer business to follow his heart and become an actor, travelled out to Spiddal from Galway on Wednesday to be screen-tested for a part.
He is asked to act out the part of Ros na Rún character Fergal. It's a fresh and unusual storyline. The short scene concerns Fergal's wife, Eilís (as played at the audition by actor Sorcha Ní Chéide), a wheelchair-bound woman (following an accident in a car driven by her husband) who has allowed her husband to go out with other women on condition that he does not fall in love with them.
"In her head, it's the only way she can make the marriage work," explains Ní Fhlatharta.
Of course, Fergal has fallen in love with someone else and the scene marks a turning point in the couple's story.
"It has come to the end of Fergal's marriage to Eilís," says Ní Fhlatharta. Camera, action.
MAC DONNCHADHA READS the lines with great passion and anger, raising his voice, pointing his finger, laughing sarcastically and showing clearly that the character is "ar buille". Now, for the next take, he is asked to tone it down slightly and not show as much anger.
"It's racy!" Mac Donnchadha says afterwards. "That's a very generous offer she made him . . . What about give a man an inch and he'll take a yard?"
In fact, it's not that racy in comparison with other storylines the soap has handled to date, including abortion, marital infidelity, a double suicide, clerical love, teenage pregnancy, rape, euthanasia and internet pornography.
The characters in the series "are not cardboard cutouts, there's a bit of depth to them. It's different to other soaps in that way", according to Mac Donnchadha's younger brother, Fergal, a session musician based in Galway, who is next up for audition in the soap's offices, which are attached to the Ros na Rún set. He reveals afterwards that his favourite character in the series is crusty publican Tadgh, as played by Macdara Ó Fatharta.
"I like the evil content in him," he says.
Yes, that character has the elusive X factor because "without opening his mouth he's got a presence", explains Ní Fhlatharta. "He's very attractive. People are drawn to him because he's such a baddie."
Other stars in the series, who have become household names in places such as the Philadelphia area of the US, where Ros na Rún is broadcast, include Sorcha Ní Chéide, from Lettermore, Co Galway. She auditioned for a part in Ros na Rún about five years ago, not long after her Leaving Cert, and now "she's got a huge male following", according to Ní Fhlatharta.
As the day draws to an end, Ní Fhlatharta leans back after a full day of auditioning, smiling wryly at the memory of the handsome auditionee who fessed up to not having that much Irish. Well, whatever about a major role, he'll definitely get a walk-on part, she concedes.