THOSE of us who revelled in Pauline McLynn's wicked performance as Maire Geoghegan Quinn on Radio Ireland's Patrick's Day broadcast of Scrap Ireland will be disappointed to learn that the show will probably remain a "one off", dreamed up by herself and Dermot Morgan while filming the Christmas special of Father Ted.
But she was all fired up about another project - a new series she is working on with Karl MacDermott for BBC Radio 4 entitled The Mahaffrys, which she described simply as "The Simpsons set in Galway". She is also plotting to write a novel about the life and times of an Irish, female private eye.
McLynn was at the opening on Thursday of Donal O'Kelly's stunning one man show at the Gate, Catalpa, which received a standing ovation. Actors figured large in the audience, and some of them must have been alarmed that O'Kelly, who performs every role himself, could effectively render them redundant. Johnny Murphy, Barry McGovern and the rest of the Waiting For Godot cast was there, with the exception of Alan Stanford, whose next task is to direct one of the plays in The Gate's forthcoming Pinter festival. McGovern, about to begin work on Ballykissangel described his new character as a conman who wears sharp suits - in short, everything he doesn't do in Beckett.
Where there are actors there are directors, in this case Gerry Stembridge, Garret Keogh, who is currently touring Rosie and Stqrwars, Gina Moxley, and Johnny Gon, who has recently completed his punk movie, Last Bus Home. The director of the Red Kettle Theatre Company, Liam Rellis, was delighted by the standing ovation given O'Kelly after Thursday's performance. He remembered a very different sort of opening night for Catalpa in Kilkenny when, eager to prove that a one man show can be compelling (more than an over inflated ego loosed upon a stool set in the middle of a darkened stage), Rellis asked people to come and see it for free - and pay him on the way out if they liked it.
Robert Ballagh was there, as was historian Joe Lee, who wrote the programme notes, while a touch of exoticism was added to the audience by the red roses in the hair of designer Loiney Keogh, who was just back from wowing the glamorous with her London show and a private showing in Paris's uber trendy Hotel Costes.