On The Town Catherine FoleyIt was a sight to behold as audience members literally jumped at the chance to dance on the Abbey stage this week.
As the Hungarian production of Dance in Time, by Pál Békés, drew to a close on St Patrick's night, the cast took to the aisles to bring guests on stage for one last rock around the clock.
Orlaith McBride, of the National Association for Youth Drama, Mary Finan, chairwoman of the Gate Theatre board, Michael Colgan, director of the Gate, concert pianist Hugh Tinney and Sharon Murphy, co-ordinator of the abbeyonehundred celebrations, were among those who stepped into the limelight.
"It's great that we have that synergy here. On a night when we celebrate our own identity, this is a play which is a celebration and an evocation of Hungary," said Murphy of the play, which returns to Budapest after tonight's performance.
Among the audience were the British Ambassador Stewart Eldon and his wife, Chris, writer Colm Tóibín, playwright Tom Murphy, actor Jane Brennan, composer Raymond Deane, artist Renate Braun, Dr Matthias Müller-Wieferig, of the Goethe Institut and poet Micheal O'Siadhail and his wife, Brid. O'Siadhail will be reading at NUI Maynooth next weekend as part of a conference on Goethe.
The director of the production from Budapest, László Marton, was greeted by many friends after the performance. Marton was named best director at The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards last month for The Wild Duck by Frank McGuinness, after Ibsen, which played at the Peacock Theatre in 2003.
"It's just telling our own story," he said after the Dance in Time performance. "It's very personal and very special to get this show here. It's like showing my family pictures to my Irish friends." Next, Marton is off to Budapest to start a workshop on Chekhov's first play, Platonov, which was discovered in a bank vault 90 years after his death.
For lovers of classical music, Tinney is playing The Emperor Concerto by Beethoven with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Eddins, over the coming week. He'll be in Castlebar on Monday, in Galway on Tuesday and in Killarney on Thursday.