Director Patrick Mason gave me permission to sit in on rehearsals for the Brian Friel’s Wonderful Tennessee play due to be staged in two weeks at the Abbey Theatre.  By the time the play opened I had finished a set of paintings of behind the scenes of the production that included portraits of the actors and the key figures of the production team.

For the next seven weeks ‘Wonderful Tennessee’ played to packed houses before transferring to Broadway. During the run of the play my paintings were in display in the foyer. I am the only artist to have staged an exhibition at the world famous theatre.

Simultaneously I was showing an exhibition of recent works downstairs from the Abbey in the Peacock Theatre which was opened by well known poet and writer Brendan Kennelly. The painting ‘Beached Hulks’ was purchased for the National Collection from this exhibition.