Champagne corks popped to herald Skylight at Project in Dublin this week. The theatrical world were out in force to attend the Irish opening of the successful West End and Broadway play written by David Hare in 1995.
The opening was attended by Hare and his wife, fashion designer Nicole Farhi, who was dashing off to Paris the next day.
Ben Barnes, the Abbey Theatre's artistic directer, was there with Eithne Healy chairwoman of the Abbey board.
Rose Parkinson, artistic director of the Galway Arts Festival, actor Risteard Cooper, artistic director of Rough Magic Lynne Parker, Gate director Michael Colgan and deputy director Marie Rooney, Tony Reilly, of the British Council, playwrights Frank McGuinness, Bernard Farrell and Hilary Fannin and producers John McColgan and Moya Doherty represented the great and the good from the world of theatre.
Actor and comedian Deirdre O'Kane and her husband, director Stephen Bradley, were also there.
Director Joe Dowling is currently working on a new production of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, which opens at the Gate next month, and Pat Moylan of Andrews Lane Theatre is now hosting Proof since it transferred from the smaller Focus Theatre.
Richard Wakely, commissioner for the upcoming Ireland China Cultural Exhcange Programme, chatted to his good friend from London, stage designer Robert Jones, who is currently working on the Gate's upcoming Lughnasa production.
Also there was Gerry Godley of the Improvised Music Company, who is off to Dublin's Liberty Hall tonight to enjoy Alim Qasimov, the devotional singer from Azerbaijan who won the 1999 UNESCO International Music Prize. This is the first Routes to Rhythm series, so get along early before the venue fills completely. For those looking for something different, Qasimov is a mugham singer who, with his voice and "a palette of instruments that has evolved over millennia ushers his audience into a state of inner emotional grace", says Godley.
Skylight, starring Cathy Belton, Owen Roe and Michael FitzGerald, which is the first play from Landmark Productions, runs at Project, Dublin, until Saturday, February 7th