On the Town: A slew of famous American actors and directors gathered at the Gate Theatre in Dublin this week for the opening night of A View from the Bridge, by Arthur Miller.
The lead actor, Christopher Meloni, of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fame, was "ecstatic and relieved" after the first-night curtain came down. Having received a standing ovation, the easily recognisable Meloni, who plays the part of Det Elliot Stabler in the hit TV detective series, joined many of his friends from New York and Hollywood in the bar afterwards.
The famous faces included his TV co-stars, Tamara Tunie (who is the medical examiner, Dr Julie Warner, in the series) and Richard Belzer (whose character is the curmudgeonly Det John Munch).
The gang also included the show's executive producers, Neal Baer (who was also the co-creator of ER) and Ted Kotcheff, who was proud to recall producing The Au Pair Man, by Hugh Leonard, at the Gate Theatre in 1968. Leonard's play, starring Donal McCann and Joan Greenwood, was staged, Kotcheff said, as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival.
Another familiar face who had audience members trying to confirm his identity was Eamonn Walker, who played opposite Meloni in the 1997 HBO series, Oz. This was a cult TV series before the Sopranos, Baer explained helpfully. Walker has just finished a run playing opposite Denzel Washington in Julius Caesar on Broadway, according to his wife, writer Sandra Kane.
"You always hear about great American acting; we saw it here tonight," said Thomas Laidlaw, from Portmarnock, a former Focus Theatre actor, who was there with his wife, Yvonne.
Meloni said that what he loves about the flawed character he plays in A View from the Bridge is, quoting one of Arthur Miller's lines, that he is "wholly himself".
Others at the opening were playwright Bernard Farrell; artist Bernadette Madden; Ken Langan, registrar of the National College of Art and Design; film costume designer Joan Bergin; actor Bryan Murray; and writer Christine Dwyer Hickey, who was with her husband, musician Denis Hickey.
A View from the Bridge, by Arthur Miller, runs at the Gate Theatre until Sat, Sept 24