Either Flann O'Brien or playwright Alex Johnston must have a cult following in Dublin as the previews of At Swim Two Birds were all sold out - a rare feat. Alex adapted O'Brien's novel for the Peacock stage and at the interval of Wednesday night's opening performance, he seemed to be slightly enjoying people's confusion about the surreal twists and turns of the play: "Now watch us tie it all together," he grinned.
The combined attractions of Flann O'Brien, Alex, and a fine cast brought plenty of first-nighters to the theatre, too. Actor Gabriel Byrne made a very low-key appearance; he arrived with agent Teri Hayden, sat huddled in a corner with playwright Tom Murphy in the interval and shot off like a scalded cat after the performance. However, he seemed to find the play itself rather amusing, particularly Johnny Murphy's performance as a baleful Fionn MacCool.
Young Ruaidhri Conroy, well-known for his great performance in The Cripple of Inishmaan, came along to check out his dad, Brendan Conroy's performance and delightedly declared himself to be doing "absolutely nothing" right now. Felim Drew was also in the audience - he is filming an episode of the BBC series The Ambassador and his co-star is his dad, Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners.
The audience included playwright/director Conall Morrison, who is working on The Colleen Bawn at the Abbey; Helen Shaw, director of RTE radio; playwright Hugh Leonard and a clatter of theatre folk including Fiach Mac Conghail of the Project, Ali Curran of the Fringe Festival and Fergus Linehan of the Dublin Theatre Festival.