The Irish premiere of Arcadia at the Gate on Tuesday was a fine opportunity to enjoy an Arcadian evening of simple, theatrical pleasure. Tom Stoppard's play, set in an English country house in two different eras, had the right mix of humour and academia, history and technology, landscape and language. Before the guests could settle down and enjoy the view of Arcadia, however, they had to get past Tanya Sillen of Channel 4 News, who was eager to learn whether or not the Irish theatre-going public had lost patience with the present Government, in the light of recent financial shenanigans. Sillen picked out a number of punters to interview in front of the Channel 4 camera, and seemed to have struck gold with Liz O'Donnell TD: the PDs' spokesperson on foreign affairs, however, was suitably diplomatic in her replies. Not so diplomatic was the audience member who fell asleep during the performance and failed to notice his mobile phone ringing. Actor Risteard Cooper improvised a withering glare from the stage until the offending subscriber finally stirred and powered off.
Most of the audience, thankfully, remained awake and thoroughly engaged by Stoppard's scintillating dialogue. Guests included barrister Eoin MacGonigal; solicitor James Hickey and his wife, actress Fiona MacAnna; architect Sam Stephen- son; RTE director general Bob Col- lins and his wife Mary O'Riordan; Gerry Ryan and his wife Morah Ryan; solicitor Ursula Courtney, who runs a film production company in partnership with Gate director Michael Colgan and U2 manager Paul McGuinness; playwright Bernard Farrell; Irish Gladiators star Audrey Garland; Ray Bates of the National Lottery and his wife, Mary Bates; designer Lainey Keogh; Cathy Gilfillan; ee, actress Emma McIvor; and bright young actor Andrew Scott, who was a nominee for an Irish Times/ESB Award for his role in Long Day's Journey into Night.
