The presence of stars such as Gabriel Byrne, Sorcha Cusack, Liam Cunningham, Brian Cox and Michael Gambon added to the air of excitement at the 10th Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards in Dublin on Sunday night.
Cox, the Scottish actor who is currently making a feature film in Dublin with producer Alan Moloney, was there with a group of friends including fellow countryman David Stirling, who was sporting a Stewart of Appin tartan kilt and jacket. Cox said he is shooting The Escapist in Dublin's Kilmainham Gaol and the John Player factory. As to his role: "I am playing the oldest con there is," he said.
Hope was in the air as guests filed into the Burlington Hotel's gala ballroom to the sound of Lukasz Rozmarnowski from northern Poland, ringing a school bell like the traditional máistir scoile of old. The atmosphere intensified as the nominees in 12 different categories settled down with their friends, families and supporters to applaud and celebrate their peers and the ultimate winners, chosen from some 140 productions.
As the winners were announced the cheers, shared memories, tributes, standing ovations and inspiring speeches of acceptance began in earnest.
Sorcha Cusack and Gabriel Byrne both paid tribute, along with many others, including designer Peter O'Brien, to actor Ingrid Craigie, the recipient of the special tribute award for her contribution to Irish theatre.
There were plenty of memories to go around. Publicist Gerry Lundberg reminded Byrne of his early acting days in Dublin when, in 1977, he and other cast members appeared naked each night in a shower scene in the play, The Liberty Suit, by Peter Sheridan in collaboration with Gerard Mannix Flynn. Others recalled that the play, which was part of the Dublin Theatre Festival, was the hit of the festival.
A Dublin-based couple smiled at the unusual idea of being in competition with each other: Thomas de Mallet Burgess, from Barnstaple in Devon, was director of The Barber of Seville, which was nominated for Best Opera Production, while his wife, the soprano Fiona McAndrew, was part of the cast of Transformations, which was nominated in the same category.
The Barber of Seville, produced by the Cork-based company Opera 2005, had support from a group from Cork, headed up by Ted Crosbie, Opera 2005's chairman, who was with his daughter, Suzanne Crosbie, Kevin Mallon, artistic director of the company, and his mother, Mary Mallon, and Clare O'Flynn, a board member of Opera 2005. Transformations, directed by Michael Barker Cavan for the Wexford Festival Opera, was deemed the winner.
Jim Culleton, artistic director of Fishamble Theatre Company, who was there with his wife, Clodagh O'Donoghue, spoke about their production last summer, Whereabouts, which won the Judges' Special Award. One or two of the 11 dramatic pieces, which were staged at various locations in Temple Bar, caused concern among members of the public, he recalled, citing 43 individuals who contacted gardaí about an attempted abduction they thought they had witnessed. Gavin Kostick, the company's literary officer, said he had driven the "getaway car" in this scene. Kostick smiled widely, delighted at the effectiveness of this particular piece of action drama, which was written by journalist Colin Murphy. A total of 56 theatre artists and practitioners had been involved in this piece of theatre, said Culleton.
Actor Kate O'Toole, who is off to the Oscars in Los Angeles shortly to support her father, Peter O'Toole, who is nominated for the eighth time for an Oscar for his role in the film Venus, was there to enjoy the awards with film-maker Patrick Cooney, whose feature documentary about the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, The Raj in the Rain, is to be premiéred shortly.
Johnny Lee Davenport, an actor from Louisana, who is currently playing Othello in a Second Age Theatre Company production, was also present at the awards ceremony. Being told as a young man that black men could not play Shakespeare has spurred him on to play "the entire cannon", said the Shakespearean actor.
Others who attended the night included Sheila Pratschke, the new director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, and her sister, international tennis player Mary O'Neill; Pat Donlon, the new director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Co Monaghan, and her husband, Phelim Donlon, and Karen Ardiff, who was winner of the best actress award in 1999 and is now preparing to celebrate the upcoming publication by New Island of her first novel, The Secret of My Face.