British actor and writer Simon Callow - best known for his roles in Shakespeare in Love, A Room with a View and Four Weddings and A Funeral - was looking moody and broody, appearing more enigmatic than many of the characters he's played on screen as he posed by the window in the upstairs bar of the Gaiety.
"It's thrilling to be here," he told the crowd gathered for the launch of the Dublin Theatre Festival's programme for 2001, adding: "It's been my lifetime's ambition to act in this city."
As a student at Queen's University, Belfast, in the late 1960s, Callow developed a love of Irish theatre and its personalities, especially Micheβl Mac Liamm≤ir. Over black tea, Callow, who will star in the one-man show, The Mystery of Charles Dickens, by Peter Ackroyd in this year's festival in October, told of his fond memories of a grim Dublin back in the 1960s.
"It's thrilling to be doing this, and you can even eat well in this city now," he joked. "I remember the days when there wasn't a decent restaurant in the city. It was all rather grey and depressing back then."
Callow was only here on a flying visit, jetting in for a day and leaving the next morning. He is busy rehearsing for the Edinburgh Festival at the moment.
Dublin Theatre Festival director Fergus Linehan introduced the programme, highlighting the strong international flavour this year. The festival opens at the Olympia Theatre on Monday, October 1st, with a performance of Oyster by Israeli company Inbal Pinto. This is Linehan's second year at the helm of the festival and he feels well settled into the role now.
"Directing three festivals would be the ideal for me, that's a nicely rounded number," he said.
Touted as "Europe's theatre event of the year", a musical version of Woyzeck, directed by Robert Wilson and with music and lyrics by Tom Waits, from Denmark's Betty Nansen Theatre, will be one of the highlights.
The Irish input to the festival will be headlined by six productions of Tom Murphy plays at the Abbey. Just back from his holidays in Co Wexford, Ben Barnes, artistic director of the National Theatre, who will direct The Gigli Concert, said he was excited about the Murphy project.
Later, a preview and wine reception for Friends of the Festival attracted over 250 to the Gaiety bar for the launch of the programme. Caroline Downey, a member of the board for the festival, was there, along with deputy chairman Peter Crowley. Bβirbre N∅ Chaoimh, of Calypso Productions, who'll be directing a new play by Roddy Doyle, Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner, was also in attendance, along with many other well-known faces from Irish theatre.
The Dublin Theatre Festival, sponsored by Eircom, will run from October 1st to 13th at 11 Dublin venues.