WHEN it comes to heavyweight celebrity presence, it's hard to beat a Brian Friel opening at the Abbey, and many a gladrag was dusted down on Wednesday for the premiere of Give Me Your Answer Do, his first at the national theatre since Wonderful Tennessee. And even if the critics weren't exactly dancing at lughnasa the next day, there were few complaints on the night from the audience, who began the evening with a standing ovation and warm applause for the President, Mrs Robinson, when she arrived at the theatre only hours after her decisive announcement.
The Minister for Finance, Ruairi Quinn, Northern Ireland Secretary Patrick Mayhew and the British ambassador, Veronica Sutherland, contributed to the formidable political line up, which required unprecedented security around the building.
Playwright Bernard Farrell was among those who greeted actor Tom Hickey with praise when he emerged from the dressing rooms wearing a hat and carrying a bunch of daffodils. The Two Seamuses - Heaney and Deane, longstanding colleagues of Friel from the Field Day era and beyond - stood solidly in the centre of the upstairs hall until the playwright finally emerged from the Green Room, Noel Pearson and James Hickey not far behind him. The play's theme of the travails of the writer may have drawn knowing nods and sometimes pained winces from the likes of Tom Kilroy, Tom McIntyre and Frank McGuinness although it might have seemed a mite unfamiliar to wunderkind Marina Carr, currently working on a play with the Druid Theatre in Galway.
Folks from the Dublin Theatre Festival included director Pat O'Connor and actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. An expected appearance from legendary director John Schlesinger of Midnight Cowboy fame did not materialise. He is currently shooting Sweeney Todd at Ardmore with a cast including Ab Fab star Joanna Lumley.
The most absolutely fabulous aspect of the night was the turnout of the Friel family, including Anne Friel and all their children who went on to join the cast at the after performance party. Novelist Jennifer Johnston, whose father Denis's play - The Lady Say No! - might have been more appropriate given the President's announcement that day, drove down from Derry for the show, while Gay Byrne and Kathleen Walkins had a comparatively shorter journey to make to join their pals from Donegal.