On the TownThe squally night outside didn't deter actors, writers and friends from attending the opening night of Fishamble Theatre Company's new production, Pilgrims in the Park.
Its creator, the playwright and TV writer-director, Jim O'Hanlon, was in the foyer to welcome friends to the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire.
Maeve Binchy, whose short stories were adapted by Fishamble's artistic director, Jim Culleton, and produced as Wired to the Moon three years ago, came with her husband, writer Gordon Snell.
Actor Des Nealon, who was in Jim O'Hanlon's first Fishamble play, The Buddhist of Castleknock, in 2002, had just finished playing in CoisCéim's Chamber Made, performed in a room in the Morrison Hotel and voted the "sexiest show" by audiences at the Dublin Fringe Festival. He was there with his wife, Bernie Keogh.
Actor Geraldine Plunkett was in the audience, as was playwright Michael Collins, whose last play, Tadgh Stray Wandered In, went on a national tour this year before going to Prague as part of Ireland's presidency of the EU.
Actor Brian Thunder, from Barna, Co Galway, was there with his wife, Léonore McDonagh, the play's costume designer. She based her designs for Pilgrims in the Park, which is set in 1979, the year of the papal visit to Ireland, on "distinct memories" of her teenage trip to Limerick to see the Pope.
"It was like going down memory lane," she said.
Director Annabelle Comyn was also at the opening night. She said she was excited about Express, an upcoming cross-Border initiative between Fishamble and Belfast's Tinderbox Theatre Company, aimed at young writers. It was expected to begin early in the new year with a series of workshops, she said.
Pilgrims in the Park continues at the Pavilion Theatre until Saturday, November 20th; then goes to the Helix, DCU, from Monday, 22nd, to Saturday, 27th; the Civic Theatre, Tallaght, from Monday, 29th, to Saturday, December 4th; and Draíocht, Blanchardstown, from Tuesday, 14th, to Saturday, 18th