If it really had been a wake on Wednesday night at the Abbey, instead of a play by that name, you would have marvelled at just how important this individual was, such was the quota of interesting folk attending. As it stands, it has been eight years since we've been treated to a new play by Tom Murphy, and no one was going to miss paying their respects at the first showing of The Wake. The playwright himself was not accompanied by his partner, Jane Brennan, as she was on stage performing the lead role of Vera. However, his two sons Johnny and Bennon were there. Bennon has just returned from a year in India and was accompanied by Lu Thornley. Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners was also watching the stage - more anxiously than most as his son, Phelim Drew, was a member of the cast.
Politicians and diplomats turned out in force - Sile de Valera was there as was her predecessor as Minister of Arts, Culture etc, Michael D. Higgins, who travelled from Galway with his wife, Sabina Higgins. Ruairi Quinn came with his wife Liz; the US ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith, was accompanied by the Mexican ambassador, Daniel Benutzin, and Mary O'Rourke was also spotted in the crowd. At this particular wake it was no surprise that the thespians also came in their droves. Playwright Bernard Farrell, whose Stella By Starlight is being revived in The Gate next week, and Ben Barnes, who is directing, were there together. Stella was due to open next week but The Heiress has been held over for an extra week due to popular demand. Thus, the Stella crew was given a week off and actors Claudia Carroll and Marion Dwyer promptly booked a trip to New York for this weekend. The Gate's Marie Rooney was going to accompany them but plumped for a holiday slightly closer to home - like many others she's heading down to see Jim Nolan's The Salvage Shop in The Red Kettle in Waterford this weekend. Quite apart from the drama on stage, half the joy of an opening night is to watch theatre people exchanging the latest news. Theatre festival director Tony O Dalaigh chatted with Gay Byrne and Kathleen Watkins; designer Rachel Ballagh caught up with singer Kieran Kennedy and his wife Maria Kennedy Doyle, who can soon be seen playing The General's wife in John Boorman's film of the same name, and the Project's Fiach MacConghail heard all about John Stephenson's plans for a Millennium project which he has been working on with Bernard Loughlin of the Tyrone Guthrie centre at Annamakerrig in Co Monaghan.
Other first-nighters included director Gerry Stembridge; James Hickey of Matheson Ormsby Prentice; Radio Ireland's John McColgan and Moya Doherty; actor Sean McGinley; authors Jennifer Johnston and Deirdre Purcell, pianist John O'Conor and his wife Mary. Upstairs after the show, everybody was congratulating the actors and Tom himself and enjoying a drink. Producer Noel Pearson and actor Peter Sheridan stayed for a while before slipping off - they had a big night to come on Thursday, when Jim Sheridan's film The Boxer opened, drawing the crowds again.