Colgan and Co raise the bar at the Gate

Gate party: Dublin theatre celebrates 80th anniversary and 25 years of director Michael Colgan at the helm

THE STAGE of the Gate Theatre - and auditorium - groaned last night under the combined weight of theatrical talent.

Eighty years of the theatre and 25 years of Michael Colgan's artistic directorship were celebrated with performances by some of the best actors seen on the Gate Theatre stage over the last 25 years. Michael Colgan was brief and dignified. "It's all about the words," he said. And he left those words speak for themselves.

The words of Beckett, Pinter and Brian Friel (who was in the audience) were among those heard in 25 two-minute excerpts.

It started with Barry McGovern ( I'll Go On) and ended with Michael Gambon ( No Man's Land). The performers included Niamh Cusack, Susan Fitzgerald, Stephen Brennan, Bill Golding, John Kavanagh, Seán McGinley, Owen Roe and Cathy Belton.

David Kelly got a great reception and performed a piece from Krapp's Last Tape.

There were four drunks (characters, not actors): Risteard Cooper In the Deep Blue Sea, Gambon in No Man's Land, Nick Dunning in Betrayaland Rosaleen Linehan in Twelfth Night.

Alan Stanford, who staged the performances, spoke. "It's 80 years since two remarkable actors [Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir], one who happened to be a director and one who happened to be a designer, formed this theatre based on these three talents. That principle had guided the theatre ever since. The first 55 years of the theatre were a testimony to the art of actor and director. The last 25 years has been every bit as great and possibly greater under the artistic directorship of Michael Colgan."