Dublin is in the midst of festival fever this week - every pub, cafe and broom cupboard has been turned into a theatre and all the talk is of the latest opening and new-found star. How ironic, then, that the show that caused the most hype, babble and enthusiasm was one firmly outside the auspices of the festival: Gerard Mannix Flynn's one man show, Talking To The Wall.
Gerard's explosive success in the Edinburgh Festival is partly the reason for the furore, as is his complex and notorious past, but it seems that the quality of the play itself was what had ticket touts selling tickets outside the Temple Bar Gallery for up to £30 on Wednesday, the final night of the run.
Among the audience packed to the rafters on that night were Bono and old friends Gavin Friday and artist Guggi; singer Marianne Faithfull; actor Johnny Murphy; designer Michael Mortell and journalist Nell McCafferty. During the week the audience included the Hugh Lane's Barbara Dawson; solicitor and old friend Gareth Sheehan; Penguin's Irish director, Paul Keegan, Lilliput Press's Antony Farrell and artist Patrick O'Reilly and his wife Gerardine Connolly, who was recently called to the Bar.
A strong dramatic contingent included scriptwriter Conor McPherson and director Joe Comerford; director Paddy Breathnach; actors Ronan Wilmot, Vinnie McCabe and Maria Doyle, together with her husband Kieran Kennedy, who has recently released a new album, Foxymoron. Of course Gerard's family were out in force; up to 15 members of the extended Flynn family, included his siblings Mary, Albert and Margaret, came along to the show, directed by Garrett Keogh and designed by photographer Perry Ogden.