Nice To Meet U2; Irons And Others At Beckett Bash
by Jilly Beattie and Pat Flanagan, The Mirror
February 1, 2001
IT was a celebrity bash to remember as Jeremy Irons, John Hurt, and President Mary McAleese let their hair down in style at Dublin Castle.
However, the name on everyone's lips was not the latest pop star, but one of Ireland best loved playwrights, Samuel Beckett.
The party was a celebration of a new series of Beckett plays, called 19 Plays x 19 Directors.
Top director Neil Jordan and actor Jeremy Irons were just two of the movie industry's big names involved in the project.
Mary McAleese was guest of honour and shared a joke with The Edge and Michael Colgan, director of the Gate Theatre, Dublin.
The party was hosted by RTE bosses, who plan to screen all the Beckett films this season.
Channel 4 will also show the series which has been described in Irish cinema as "an historical event".
RTE won the rights to make the films with some of the world's greatest directors and actors.
The plays will get their world television premieres on RTE over the coming months.
RTE's managing director of television Joe Mulholland described the production as a "unique and wonderful artistic event".
He also thanked the Beckett estate for having granted the rights to film the works to RTE.
Mr Mulholland said: "By bringing to the screen the work of the most innovative and significant playwright of the 20th century, work that has captured the imagination across five continents.
"RTE will have made a most important contribution to celebrating the achievement of one of Ireland's great literary giants.
"This is one of the most significant millennium projects to be undertaken by any broadcasting organisation anywhere in the world."
Among those involved in the project are the director Neil Jordan and actors Michael Gambon, Dame Judi Dench, Julianne Moore, and Harold Pinter.
The plays include Waiting For Godot and Krapp's Last Tape.