The Murphy's Cork Film Festival has consistently grown in stature and prestige and now it even has a one-page, daily news-sheet with updates of what's on, what's hot and who's doin' what. Last Sunday was the opening night of the festival, so the Cork Opera House and the newly-launched Half Moon Club were a-buzz with festy fever.
Having your feature-film debut chosen as the opening film of the Cork festival is a fair-sized honour and it's one that David Caffrey, director of Divorcing Jack, appreciates particularly keenly. David is now up to his ears with work (of which more later), but it's not so long ago since he saw a very different side of Cork city. Every week, he would hop on the train from Dublin with several buckets of roses from the flower market and spend his Friday nights selling them round the pubs of Cork. His partner in the venture, Colley Seaver, was there on Sunday night to share a few pints in very different circumstances to the old rose-selling days. "I think it's a great story," David said in the Cork Opera House bar after the showing, and agreed that it was a very good buzz to be making a triumphant return to Cork - particularly as he only got there by the skin of his teeth.
David is in the midst of directing Aristocrats, a six-part series of Stella Tillyard's book for BBC. On Sunday, shooting didn't finish until 7 p.m. and it looked like David wouldn't be able to make it to the opening night.
But then BBC Northern Ireland stepped in and hired a small plane to whisk him from Dublin to Cork. After the film there was just time for a few drinks with old friends and his parents and then it was straight into a camper van that would drive through the night and get David back on set by 8 a.m. next morning. Those old friends included a number of people involved with Divorcing Jack, which went down a storm at the Opera House. Author Colin Bateman was there with his wife Andrea Bateman; he was delighted with the film but already has his sights set on a dizzying collection of other projects. There is a novel, Made of Mist, due for publication shortly, three other novels in the pipeline and a screenplay in development. Called Thanks for the Memories, it's going to star Robbie Coltrane and will be directed by Declan Lowney of Father Ted and Cold Feet fame.
The star of the film, David Thewlis, had to pull out of his trip to Cork at the last minute but Jason Isaacs, who plays the mean and moody anti-hero, flew in with his partner Emma Hewart, who is a documentary-maker with the BBC series Modern Times. Jason is instantly recognisable from his role in Armageddon with Bruce Willis and has another film called Soldier, which he filmed with Kurt Russell, coming up. He was particularly charmed by the restaurant chosen for the pre-film dinner, which was attended by the film's producer, Robert Cooper of BBC Northern Ireland; Mick Hannigan, the festival director; and Deirdre O'Donovan, the festival manager. It was, of course, Isaacs on MacCurtain Street.
Getting into the spirit
Love him or hate him, you've got to admit Andrew Lloyd Webber puts on a good spectacle. So when Phantom of the Opera, the hit that wowed the West End (and just about everywhere else for that matter), arrived in Dublin for the first time, there was a good buzz about the gala performance at the Point, which took place on Tuesday night. An invited-guest list of 300 was treated to pre-show drinks in a very public corral in the foyer and then afterwards to a rather extravagant extravaganza at the Berkeley Court Hotel.
This guest list seemed to consist almost entirely of people from RTE - indeed, one guest was overheard wondering whether the powers-that-be had decided to save on the Christmas party. Gay Byrne was there with Kathleen Watkins - he had to sneak in late to the performance as there was also an RTE reception going on upstairs at the Point.
Other RTE heads included Larry Gogan, Ronan Collins, Brendan Balfe and the director of public affairs, Kevin Healy. These last two had their very glamorous daughters in tow - Ellie Balfe is just home for a week from her job as manager of the oh-so-elegant Space NK shop in London, while Zoe Healy works at the Fine Gael press office and is up to her eyes with the forthcoming by-election.
Non-RTE members of the guest list included U2 manager Paul McGuinness with his teenage daughter Alexandra McGuinness; Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners; Ian Dempsey, who pronounced the performance "superb", singer Christy Moore; publisher Mike Hogan - who has just bought Magill magazine; Ken Hutton of 98FM; Norma Smurfit, fundraiser for the Irish Youth Foundation, and Harry Crosbie, the man behind the Point Theatre.
Simply steaming
A few nights of each Dublin Theatre Festival stand out as the nights when everybody partied. Tuesday night and the opening of Red Kettle's production, The Salvage Shop, was one such occasion. What with the christening of the newly re-vamped Green Room and the reception held by the Waterford District Council in the Dress Circle Bar, the Gaiety didn't empty until after 2.30 a.m.
The politicos who made it along to this opening night included the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, accompanied by Celia Larkin; the Minister for Arts, Sile de Valera, who stayed on with the best of them at the Waterford Council party; the Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, and Martin Cullen, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, who hails from Waterford.
The evening was a personal triumph for Jim Nolan, the artistic director of Red Kettle, who wrote the play. He was just back from New York, where the Irish Arts Centre is putting on a new production of his play, Moonshine. The night was a triumphant return to the stage for Niall Toibin, the star of the show, who partied after the show with the cast, his wife Judy Toibin and various other party members in the Green Room.
This party, which also included actors Olwen Fouere and Conor McDermottroe, who slipped down after the night's performance at the Abbey, was presided over by Noel Pearson. Noel is one of the investors in the show and the cause of much gossip suggesting that the production will be taken abroad a la Dancing at Lughnasa.
The other big story was about the Friel festival which Noel is organising for next spring.
Meanwhile, John Costigan, the director of the Gaiety, is at an advanced stage of discussions with the Royal Shakespeare Company about bringing A Month in the Country to the theatre, with director Michael Attenborough at the helm. Other people at the opening night were the show's director Ben Barnes, who is off to Montreal to direct yet another show after his theatre festival double bill with The Salvage Shop and Uncle Vanya at the Gate; costume designer Joan Bergin, who made up Noel Pearson's party with Noel's partner Rosemary Roach, Brian Farrell, chairman of the Arts Council; RTE's Carrie Crowley; actor Lorcan Cranitch who pops up in both Ballykissangel and Pat O'Connor's film, Dancing at Lughnasa, and Tina Kelleher, star of BallyKay.