`Heaven" was the succint description actress Frances McDormand's used for both her experience at the Gate Theatre and her time in Ireland. The curtain had come down on Tuesday night's eventful performance of A Streetcar Named Desire (when will people learn to switch off the mobile phone and leave the box of Roses for the interval?) and Frances arrived into the bar, resplendent in a limegreen, Lainey Keogh number.
She had praise for all kinds of everything including director Robin Lefevre, the manageable size of Dublin, and most of all, the DART - "No, really, public transport is very important". This is the first time in five years the Oscar-winner has been on the stage, but she is doing another play in New York in September - oh, and there's another film project coming up after that.
The Coen brothers of film directing and producing fame were there, which was no surprise to anybody as Joel Coen is Frances's husband; Ethan Coen was accompanied by his wife, Trish Coen, and was chatting nineteen to the dozen with film director John Boorman. Stephen Rea was looking younger than ever due to a delightfully wild and woolly studentesque haircut - he has just finished playing a retro keyboard player in the film Still Crazy and is off to shoot some extra scenes for Neil Jordan's film In Dreams. John Hurt was fresh from shooting Night Train with Brenda Blethyn, who was Oscar-nominated for Secrets And Lies. The two got on so well together that they are now lined up for another movie - John will play Alfred Lord Tennyson while Brenda takes the role of photographer Julia Cameron. Incidentally, when Night Train hits the big screens, the eagle-eyed should take a good look at the crowd scenes filmed at the Venice carnival - both Brenda and John's partner, Sarah Owens, donned full costume and took to the streets as extras for a day. The other star of the night was Donna Dent, who played the part of Stella. Her husband, actor Joe Gallagher, joined her in the bar later, but admitted he had seen the show in preview rather than on the opening night. He had just hot-footed it down from rehearsals for Brendan O'Carroll's show, The Course, which opened on Thursday night at the Olympia. The show brings a chance for model Vivian Connolly to make the switch from catwalk to stage. Other folk flooding the foyer included singer Marianne Faithfull; U2 manager Paul McGuinness; RTE's Dave Fanning; dancer Jean Butler and her beau, Richard Boyle; broadcasters Gay Byrne and Kathleen Watkins; the British ambassador, Veronica Sutherland; director Ben Barnes; playwright Bernard Farrell and actor David Herlihy.
Making it happen
Surprisingly, PR people are often the last people you should ask to throw a good party - isn't there a proverb about that? If there isn't, there should be. Caroline Kennedy, head of her own eponymous business, Kennedy PR, proved the exception. Armed with the knowledge that the Tuesday after a long weekend is not a day for going wild, she opted for a rather select birthday party in the Fitzgerald Suite of the Merrion Hotel. The guest list included her sister, designer Louise Kennedy, and Louise's business manager Paddy Bollard; longtime friend Melanie Morris of D-Side magazine who gave the birthday girl a cardboard handbag complete with fake jewels; film-maker Katy McGuinness, who is gearing up for the Cannes Film Festival, and her husband, architect Felim Dunne, who is working on the new design warehouse for Temple Bar, called Urbana.
Colleagues included Hannah Moore with her partner, furniture designer Simon O'Driscoll; Sarah Hogan and the recently married Jackie Dawson: other party gals and guys included the Merrion Hotel's general manager Gerard Denneny; A-Wear boss Deirdre Kelly; Eileen Pearson, and Marie Donnelly and Niamh Sheeran of the Irish Hospice Foundation.
Bursary for Bantry
For the past three years, one of West Cork's main claims to cultural superiority during the summer months has been the annual Chamber Music Festival which takes place in the truly splendid setting of Bantry House.
At a concert at the National Concert Hall on Tuesday night to publicise the festival, it got a great boost when RTE director-general, Bob Collins, announced that RTE would be the major sponsor of the event, which takes place between June 28th and July 5th. It's a dream come true for farmer Francis Humphrys, the man who dreamed up the festival in the first place. Among those who came along to hear the good news - and RTE's concert orchestra with the Vanbrugh String Quartet performing together for the first time - was a whole clatter of RTE top brass, including the director of public affairs, Kevin Healy and his partner, novelist Deirdre Purcell; chairman of the RTE authority Farrel Cocoran and his wife Mary O'Connell, and FM3's Seamus Crimmins, who is on the festival board.
Fungus among us
Paolo Tullio has always been a bit of a renaissance man - part author, part gourmet, part bon viveur. So it's no surprise that his latest book, Mushroom Man, which was published at a huge bash in the John B. bar of the Gaiety on Wednesday, manages to combine all three roles.
Singer Chris de Burgh did the honours, recalling how he and Paolo met in Trinity College before marrying two sisters, Diane and Susan Morley. Both couples now live in Wicklow and Chris painted an idyllic existence of fine wine, good food and gathering mushrooms - we presume he meant the culinary kind. Chris himself was just back from a concert in Canada and is working towards a new album and a European-concert tour that will kick off with the memorial concert for the Princess of Wales in June. It was a big night out for the Wicklow mafia and a few people looked slightly edgy when Chris said there were some rather recognisable local characters in the book. Who is that millionaire, that insatiable female? The party continued long into the night and the room remained packed to the gills. Actor John Hurt, his partner Sarah Owens and U2 manager Paul McGuinness came along; Patrick Guinness of Sotheby's was there with his wife Louise, who was on crutches adorned with gold ribbon; Richard McGillicuddy (or to give him his full title, The McGillicuddy of the Reeks) came up for the occasion, as did the Lloyds - Julian, Victoria and Poppy - who travelled from Kildare.
All the way from Coventry
Bedrock theatre company was set up five years ago and it was decided to celebrate the anniversary in style. On Tuesday night, it took over Whelan's in Wexford Street and invited everyone involved with the company to come and party. For Patrick Leech, one of the founder members, it was a double celebration, as he celebrated his 30th birthday at the stroke of midnight.
Those dancing the night away to music provided by Bedrock composer Vincent Doherty and DJ Willy White (familiar to many as one of the presenters of Later On 2) included director Gerry Stembridge, whose production of The Whiteheaded Boy with Barabbas makes a popular return to Andrews Lane Theatre on Wednesday; Jason Byrne of Loose Canon Theatre Company, who is currently staff director at the Abbey; playwright Alex Johnston, who has set himself the rather Herculean task of adapting Flann O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds for the Peacock stage; comedian Mark Doherty; Ali Curran and Brendan Courtney of the Dublin Fringe Festival, and Sam Mason, who made the trip from the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.