PERHAPS the most successful Irish play ever presented was Brian Friel's Dancing At Lughnasa which, since it was first mounted at the Abbey in 1990, has been seen all over the world in dozens of different productions. Now, one of the show's Broadway producers, Noel Pearson, is going to make a film of it.

Friel has always fought shy of the cinema since his earliest hit, Philadelphia Here I Come was filmed unsuccessfully back in the 1960s. There was talk a few years ago of a Neil Jordan directed screen version of Translations - whatever happened to that?

The screenplay for Lughanasa, The Movie, will, we understand, be written by another distinguished Irish playwright, Frank McGuinness, but there is no word yet about a director or stars.

Meanwhile Friel's latest play, entitled Give Me Your Answer Do, is marked for production at the Abbey next Spring, with the playwright himself directing.