Applications are now in for the post of managing director of the Abbey but apparently the excitement of the premiere of Tom Murphy's new play, The Wake, has stalled the system a bit. The Abbey reports itself happy with the calibre of the applicants, and expects to make an appointment in three to six months.

Meanwhile, Abbey graduate, director John Crowley is to direct Shadows, a trinity of plays by Synge and Yeats, for the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Stratford. The plays - Riders To The Sea, In The Shadow Of The Glen and Purgatory - with casts including Stella McCusker and Lalor Roddy, preview from February 18th. Another London production with an Irish interest will open on March 12th, when Liam Neeson will star as Oscar Wilde in The Judas Kiss, a new play about Wilde by David Hare, which is an Almeida Theatre production, to be staged at The Playhouse. The director is Richard Eyre. It is hoped the show will travel to Broadway.

There will be a very notable London export to Dublin this month next year, however, when the legendary, 11-year-old hit, Les Miserables comes to Dublin, and this time with Dubliner Colm Wilkinson in the title role of Valjean, which he played in the original production.