Dilly goes to Dublin

Frankie went to Hollywood and Dilly's gone to Dublin. But we didn't know Frankie and most of us will never know Hollywood, well not that Hollywood, but we do know Dilly (that'd be Dafydd O'Shea to ye) and we can easily follow him to Dublin.

So, in two words - we did.

For those who don't know, local man Dafydd O'Shea recently landed his first professional stage role in a production of John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" in Dublin's Andrew's Lane Theatre Studio.

The play opened on Wednesday night and the critic for "The Indo" in yesterday's edition thought Dilly shone, so our enthusiasm was all the more inflated heading up last evening.

We were not to be dissappointed. The play itself is gritty and challenges its audience. Far be it from me to critique the play, many are infinitely more qualified than me so to do, but, and I make no apologies for this, I like this sort of play and I know Dilly does too. This was evident in what for me was an intelligent, thoughful and confident portrayal of his character, Cliff Lewis.

I won't bore either yourselves or myself by waxing lyrical about performances, design, direction etc. I'll leave that to the reviewers. Suffice it to say I enjoyed the production overall, and what was blindingly obvious to me was that Dilly was at home in his surroundings and was the equal of his fellow cast members. I suspected that would be the case, but I wanted to see it with my own eyes. Now that I have I can only wonder what's next for him. Its a tough world, that professional acting lark, and sadly only a few make a living at it. Last night I saw no reason why Dilly shouldn't be one that does, and every reason why he should. With any luck the breaks will come his way.

I would urge people to travel up. The show is set to run 'till the 27th of January and tickets, priced €18 can be booked at the Box Office on 01 6795720

Well done Buddy, we're well proud of you and rather pleased for you too!!

Roy Thompson.