SOCIAL NETWORK:The actor Marion O'Dwyer was quite coy when she arrived at the opening of Tiny Plays for Ireland at Project Arts Centre, in Dublin, on Tuesday evening. She told me she will star in a play at the Gate in the summer but wasn't allowed to mention the name and didn't want to get into trouble.
She needn’t have worried. Ten minutes later the Gate’s director, Michael Colgan, walked in and told me it will be A Woman of No Importance, by Oscar Wilde, which will be directed by Patrick Mason and will star Stephen Brennan and Ingrid Craigie, with costumes by Peter O’Brien. It will also star Cathy Belton, who is currently in rehearsals for Rough Magic’s The House Keeper by Morna Regan, which will be staged at Project next month.
The actor Stephen Brennan was at the Tiny Plays opening with his sister and fellow actor Jane Brennan, who said she has a cameo in the BBC drama Loving Miss Hatto, written by Victoria Wood and currently in production. Stephen’s daughter, the actor Kate Stanley Brennan, was performing in Tiny Plays for Ireland.
Carrie Crowley is delighted to be in Ruth Rendell’s Thirteen Steps Down, which is about to be filmed for ITV. “The part’s not huge, but I’m looking forward to it,” she said. “The first read-through is this week.” The barrister and author Rachel Fehily, who wrote one of the plays, was accompanied by her partner, the dentist Dr John O’Grady. Fehily’s second book, Break Up, Don’t Crack Up, came out last week. She told me she is also writing a play. It’s a legal thriller about a man in consultation with a criminal lawyer who wants him to plead manslaughter.
Jim Culleton, artistic director of Fishamble, directed all the Tiny Plays. In 2011 Fishamble, in association with The Irish Times, offered budding playwrights the chance to see their play performed on stage. Applicants were asked to write a play in English or Irish of no more than 600 words. The company received more than 1,700 tiny plays and whittled them down to 50. Fishamble is mounting two productions: the current one of 25 tiny plays continues until March 31st; another 25 plays will be staged later in the year or early in 2013. Fishamble also commissioned plays from, among others, Dermot Bolger, Joe O’Connor, Ardal O’Hanlon, Maeve Binchy and Colum McCann.
Who we spotted:Niamh Shaw and Una Kavanagh of Anu theatre company; the writer Christopher Fitz-Simon; Kay Sheehy, series producer of Today with Pat Kenny; the actor Peadar Lamb
Diplomatic crooning
There might be a diplomatic choir yet. Apparently the new British ambassador, Dominick Chilcott, likes to sing, and the Austrian ambassador, Dr Walter Hagg, is known to give Capt von Trapp a run for his money. Chilcott was due to arrive in the first week in April, but he's going to leave it until after Easter before he arrives at Glencairn, the British residence in Ireland.
Chilcott was born in Hong Kong, the son of a regular army officer, and is an alumnus of Oxford. He had entered Britannia Royal Naval College, in Dartmouth, in 1978 and passed out in April 1979, but he left the Royal Navy after a year, before going to university. He and his wife, Jane, have one daughter, 25-year-old Charlotte, who is a postgraduate medical student, and three sons: George (22), a theatre director; William (20), a modern-languages student at Bath university, and Arthur (16), who is at boarding school in Kent.
Chilcott had been the British ambassador in Tehran from October last year, but his posting was cut short after Iranian students attacked the embassy, after which the mission closed.
** Olivia Palermo, the model and star of the US television series The City, will be in Kildare Village next Tuesday, doing a shoot for Vanity Fair magazine. Palermo is a regular on the front row of international catwalk shows.
Seed capital day
Dan Mullane of the award-winning Mustard Seed at Echo Lodge in Ballingarry, Co Limerick, exchanged vows with his partner, Sumring Dumri, in a civil partnership at the register office in Limerick. It was eight years to the day since they met. Sumring is a botanical artist and Thai therapist. They attended Mass in Ballingarry earlier that day. After refreshments at No 1 Pery Square in Limerick, they travelled to the Merrion Hotel in Dublin for a Champagne reception and dinner; they were joined by 55 guests, including Jane O'Callaghan of Longueville House, in Cork, and Francis Brennan of the Park Hotel, in Kenmare. Francis trained at Cathal Brugha Street with Dan. On Wednesday morning, Dan and Sumring flew first-class to Bangkok to visit Sumring's mother.
DVF at BT, and the ICA on TV
On Wednesday evening, the model Thalia Heffernan came straight from the Teresian School in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, where she is a fifth-year student, to sashay down the catwalk at the Brown Thomas Diane von Furstenberg "New Beginnings" spring-summer 2012 fashion show.
The TV presenter Judy Gilroy is taking part in ICA Bootcamp. She told me the episode featuring her will air on April 3rd. "There is a catfight in my episode. I wasn't involved."
Emily O'Donnell starred in ICA Bootcamp two years ago. She said she intended to wear a neon coral dress by Malene Birger to the VIP Style Awards last night. She has just completed a TV-presenting course and is working on her show reel.
The Brown Thomas fashion director, Shelley Corkery, has been travelling with BT buyers since January. They've been to New York, London, Milan and Paris. This week she's still travelling, but only as far as BT Cork and BT Limerick.
Who we spottedStylist Karl Patrick Smith; nurse Karen McCluskey; radio presenter Suzanne Jackson
What we heardShelley Corkery encouraging guests to stay for Prosecco
Along comes a novel
It is 10 years since Marisa Mackle launched her first book. Then, her late grandmother was the guest of honour.
"My mother encouraged Marisa to write," explained Daphne Mackle at the launch of her daughter's 17th book, Along Came a Stork, at Dubray Books on Grafton Street on Tuesday evening.
Marisa's books have been translated into Japanese, Russian and Polish.
Marisa's son Gary was being looked after by her father, Eamonn, who told me the family moved to Dublin from Armagh when Marisa was four.
The model Alison Canavan launched the book. She spends a couple of days each week in London, where she is "really busy" modelling.
Who we spotted:Rosanna Davison; the author Marita Conlon-McKenna; the cabin-crew member Jane Vaughan; the author Michelle Jackson
Queen of news shines at final Panti pageant
Anne Doyle did a voiceover at the beginning of the last Alternative Miss Ireland, which was held at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Sunday evening. The dress code was silver and black, and Doyle's partner, the restaurateur Dan McGrattan , was dressed for the occasion in a silver jacket with black stripes.
Miss Panti was the host for the evening. She became emotional when she reflected that, as this was the last year of Alternative Miss Ireland, she'd miss all the people who work behind the scenes. She then summoned everyone to bow their heads and join with her in prayer: "Dear Dolly Parton, in your infinite wisdom and really great wigs, help us to choose wisely and may the best queen win." The best queen, as it turned out, was Miss Minnie Melange.
Riyadh Khalaf of Spin 103.8 almost didn't get a ticket for the show, but "after a lot of time spent on Twitter" he managed to secure one. He abandoned his mother on Mother's Day, "but she understood".
Who we spotted:Vilhelmiina Huuskonen from Finland, who is a lecturer in UCD's veterinary department; Chicago-born Colin Hogan, who lives in Ballsbridge; Brendan O'Loughlin of 98fm; the actor Camille Ross, who is preparing for Durang Durang at the Project Cube from April 2nd to 7th; the actor Daragh McMahon
