Earnest openings

ROM the sublimely humorous to the spectacularly ridiculous, this week's theatre openings offered a cornucopia of comedy and farce, and the stage performances were quite funny too. It was fright night at the Olympia on Tuesday, as The Rocky Horror Show began its run of transvestite terror, and some members of the audience were suitably cross-dressed to kill.

RTE's Ronan Collins was more conservatively attired, but this didn't stop the cast from dragging the broadcaster onstage to join in the musical, and coercing him into taking part in a lollipop-licking contest.

Budding Irish pop diva Una sensibly hid in the shadows at the back of the theatre, thus avoiding having to re-enact her steamy videos onstage. Also seen enjoying the camp goings-on were punk's grand dame Hazel O'Connor and Senator David Norris. Dressed normally - and thus easy to recognise - were actors Peter Warnock and Malcolm Douglas, but for all we know, there may well have been a veritable pantheon of celebrities lurking beneath all the lipstick and pantyhose. We'll probably never know.

Meanwhile, down the street at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, Maeve Binchy's End Of Term delivered some more academic antics, as the eerie castle of Dr Frank N. Furter was replaced by the marginally more terrifying setting of a school staffroom. US Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, RTE's Mike Murphy, author Tim Pat Coogan, Councillor Carmencita Hederman and her husband Billy Hederman, and booksellers Fred Hanna and Kevin Brabazon were among the first-night guests who were able to eavesdrop on the teachers' tales of faculty indiscretions and pupils' misdemeanours.

"I wrote this play 20 years ago," said Ms Binchy, "but children are as outrageous now as they ever were - probably even more so.

Theatre-goers moved on to the Abbey on Wednesday for Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest, and there was indeed an earnest turnout of celebrities for this elegantly appointed new production, directed by Patrick Mason and featuring Darragh Kelly, Rosaleen Linehan and Dawn Bradfield.

Wildean wit was widely quoted in the foyer and bar of the National Theatre by a cast of characters which included the British ambassador Veronica Sutherland, US ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, Ministers Michael D. Higgins and Niamh Breathnach, the writer Marie Heaney, artists Louis Le Brocquy and Anne Madden and broadcasters Gay Byrne and Kathleen Watkins.

Former Miss Ireland Anna Marie McCarthy was plainly visible, but not visibly plain, and also seen in the herd were RHA Gallagher Gallery director Ciaran MacGonigal, senior counsel Eoin MacGonigal, singer Agnes Bernelle and broadcaster Myles Dungan.

Film and theatre folk included Jim Sheridan, playwright Tom Murphy, novelist and playwright Jennifer Johnston, film producers Morgan O'Sullivan, Ed Guiney and Bill Hughes, theatre directors Ben Barnes and Garry Hynes, and Arts Council director Patricia Quinn.

Also having an earnestly enjoyable evening were various cast members of RTE soaps Glen roe and Fair City, including Pat Leavy, Martina Stanley, Claudia Carroll, Tara Quirke, Karen Hastings-Belshaw and Bobby Carrickford.