On The Town:'It's what George S Kaufman called 'the fabulous invalid'," playwright Hugh Leonard commented at the launch of this year's Dublin Theatre Festival programme, when asked about Irish theatre. "They think it's dying but it comes back immediately." If the excitement evident in Dublin's City Hall this week for the launch of the festival's 50th anniversary programme is anything to go by, then Irish theatre is alive and kicking.
With Loughlin Deegan now at the helm as artistic director, those in the Irish theatre world - out in full force on Tuesday - are confident that great things are coming.
"He's one of the leading lights of the theatre world in Ireland," said actor Pauline McLynn. "I think it's going to be brilliant."
Choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan echoed her sentiments: "Loughlin's great, great news for the theatre world in Ireland, and I don't say that lightly."
Keegan-Dolan also promised to build on the resounding success of the first two parts of his Midlands Trilogy (Giselle and The Bull) with a production for this year's festival that currently has the working title, James, Son of James.
Other festival highlights include a visit from Japan's Butoh dance company, Sanki Juku, the return of Laurie Anderson with her take on the changing face of the US in Homeland, and Rough Magic's production of a new Irish play by Christian O'Reilly, Is This About Sex. Deegan also proudly proclaimed that this year's festival will be "the greatest celebration of performing arts that the city of Dublin has ever seen". Perhaps with this in mind, Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue was on hand to announce additional funding for this year's anniversary event. Thespians and theatre-goers welcomed the cash injection, among them actor Conor Mullen, seen recently in RTÉ's Rough Diamond, who commented: "If there's money going around, you want to see it put back into the arts."
It's clear that in the 50 years since the genesis of the festival, while much has changed, some things thankfully remain the same. Leonard remarked: "They tell me I've had 22 shows in the festival. Well, I've always found theatre in Ireland very lively, and I still find it lively."