DISTINGUISHED French director Simone Benmussa was the toast of Galway on Thursday night after the opening of The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs, the play she has newly adapted, directed and designed for Druid Theatre Company. After the performance, French ambassador Francois Muton moved to calm any opening night jitters she may have had by whisking her off to dinner in Ti Neachtain's restaurant on Cross Street. While waiting for their table they shared a snug in the public bar downstairs with the President, Mrs Mary Robinson and actress Jane Brennan who plays the title role of Albert, the waiter who is not what he seems. Mrs Robinson, who is Druid's patron, had attended the Ia with her brother Henry Burke and his wife Barbara.
The play is based on a short story of the same name by Irish writer George Moore and Druid's Chapel Lane theatre has been transformed into a replica of Dublin's Morrisson's Hotel, in which the story is set. Among the invited guests for the night were the two distinguished Tom's - Murphy and Kilroy - both of whom have a long association with Druid. Also there was artist and sculptor John Behan who, earlier in the week had taken the diminutive Ms. Benmussa on a tour of More Hall in Co. Mayo. It was Behan, incidentally, who painted the portrait of George Moore which hangs in the Druid Foyer.
For the post performance party the opening night crowd adjourned to yet another hotel, Brennan's Yard around the corner on Merchant's Road. The revellers included Monique Bolger and Michel Dion, both from Alliance Francais, actors Ray McBride, Eileen Colgan (who plays Myna in Glenroe), and Aoife Kavanagh, who plays Kitty McCann in the new play. Of all the pedigrees on display hers was certainly the longest being, as she is, directly descended from Stongbow.
Sadly absent from the celebrations was Druid founder Garry Hynes who has been trying to bring Benmussa to Galway since 1978. Hynes was in London attending the first preview of Portia Coughlan at the Royal Court.
She was said to be "sadly disappointed" not to be there.