The audience at the opening of Gary Mitchell's new play, As The Beast Sleeps in The Peacock theatre on Wednesday night were a rather eclectic but very interesting bunch. The biggest murmurs were caused by the arrival of Anjelica Huston, who is here to film Brendan O'Carroll's play, The Mammy. Returning to Ireland was "always a pleasure", she said, adding that Marion O'Dwyer has been chosen to co-star with her when shooting starts in July. The other guest of note was Gary McMichael, leader of the Unionist Democratic Party, there to see the play which is about the UDA in north Belfast during a "fictional" ceasefire. He described the play as "very compelling" and declared the accents to be spot on. Playwright Gary Mitchell was accepting compliments all round and gearing up for his next project: filming starts next Monday on a script about Wolfe Tone, commissioned by RTE. It will be shown on the 200th anniversary of his death later this year - actor Adrian Dunbar will take the lead role.
Playwright Loughlin Deegan also has plans afoot - the followup to his very successful play, The Stomping Ground, will be performed by Red Kettle in Waterford next February. It's about a gay bar in London which lends its name to the title of the show, The Queen And Peacock.
Actor Michael Liebman had interesting news of the film world. At the moment he insists that he is doing nothing but playing Tomb Raider on his Play Station but then, he has been rather busy of late. Michael was in Jimmy Smallhorne's film 2 X 4 which is a big hit in the US and will premiere in Ireland at the Galway Film Fleadh, and he has also just finished work on Tango One, the BBC film about Martin Cahill starring Ken Stott. Later in the year, Michael is going to start work on the new Michael Winterbottom film, Something Borrowed, Something Blue which is set in Belfast but will be filmed in London this autumn. Other first-night folk included actor Eleanor Methven, who is in the middle of filming Mad About Mambo; actor Pascal Friel, who is working on Macnas's Dublin Theatre Festival show about Van Gogh, which will be directed by Mikel Murfi and playwright Conor McPherson. Jack Gilligan of Dublin Corporation was there, ready for the Dublin Writers' Festival which kicks off today, as was Derry journalist Eamon McCann, who wrote the programme notes.