Catherine Foley takes a backstage view at the seventh Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards in Dublin.
There were flowing locks, velvet shoes and Armani outfits - and that was just the men. Actors and all members of the theatrical world celebrated in style at the seventh Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards in Dublin.
"Well, what do you know?" said a bemused Gerard Mannix Flynn, when he won the Best New Play award for his play James X. "The last place I thought I'd be on a Sunday night was in the Burlo!"
He smiled then as he told the assembled guests about his play. "I'm a committed person and at the end of the day, this business is about commitment.
This (getting the award) is a possible result." James X is "about re-empowering and reclaiming and being present and committed to yourself," he said.
When Frankie McCafferty took the Best Supporting Actor award, he paused to look about him appreciatively. "I'd like to thank the girls for dressing up and looking so fabulous," he said smiling like a charming Don Juan.
He himself wore a sage green suit with a rakish beret and a beige scarf. Then he continued in serious vein.
"It was kind of nice to be playing a hero and a victim in the Great War when we were all out trying to stop the war in the Gulf," he said about his portrayal of Moore in the Lyric Theatre production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness.
There was no hook to remove Annie Ryan - of the Corn Exchange Theatre Company, which took the Best Production award for its staging of Mud, a play by the Cuban American playwright, María Irene Fornés - when she took the stage to speak longer than anyone else.
But she was also the most passionate speaker of the night. This piece of work was "not commercial", she explained. "In many ways, this work is hard to sell. Choosing this was a serious risk for us. It's all about risk, really. You can't be safe in the theatre."
And Simone Kirby, who was nominated for her part in Mud, which was "my first big lead role", summed the play up as being about "a woman's struggle to escape two men who are pulling her back into the mud".
Kirby, who is from Ennis, Co Clare, can currently be seen bringing Christy Mahon a pat of butter every night in the Druid's production of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World in Galway.
Ruth McCabe, who was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role as the servant Poncia in The House of Bernarda Alba, chatted to friends after dinner. She has just finished in a film directed by Damien O'Donnell. What is her part in the film? "A carer. Sure, what else!" said the sometimes type-cast actor with a wry smile.
The young actor Aaron Monaghan, from Cavan town, was another nominee who was able to enjoy that pre-award feeling. His portrayal of a rustic character who creates a lot of mischief in She Stoops to Conquer "was the best experience" and one of his earliest roles after leaving college.
Maureen Kennelly, chairwoman of the judges, said "there were loads of new names this year and the performances were just stunning.
"I'll probably never have such a rich knowledge of what goes on in the theatre world in Ireland again," she said.
"I'll miss it. It was an absolute privilege," said Kennelly, who now steps down after two years as a judge.