All the world was a stage and all the men and women merely - stars, as the theatre festival swung into action in Dublin this week.
At the Abbey Theatre on Tuesday night, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, attended the opening of Tom Murphy's play, A Whistle in the Dark. "Powerful stuff," he said at the interval. It was the right word - powerful, all week.
There was excitement outside the Olympia Theatre on Dame Street for the opening performance of Oyster and the official festival kick-off of the Eircom Dublin Theatre Festival 2001.
It's when "Dublin becomes a global village", said Moya Doherty, the festival's chairwoman. "It's the unique fusion of Irish with the international . . . It's a fine programme of riches."
Attending the opening performance was Julia Palmer-Price and her husband Philip with their 10-month-old daughter AletΘa. "She wants to be a dancer," said the baby's knowing mother as they went in to see the Israeli dance performance. Julia plays the cello at the Tivoli Theatre from next Monday in the Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer performance of Ich Liebe Dich. There was just a tiny cry out of AletΘa during the show, but it was one of admiration.
Members of the all-male cast of Rose Rage were there, too, to view the festival's riches. Jules Werner, from Luxemburg - understudy for the whole drama crew, when they play at Belvedere College's O'Reilly Theatre - was there, looking unconcerned about remembering his lines in the play, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI plays.
At the Abbey, Murphy and his partner Jane Brennan, in a wine velvet trouser suit, were surrounded by friends and family for the two week-long celebration of the playwright's work. Ben Barnes, artistic director of the national theatre, said they're "all lined up on the runway", sounding like someone in a control tower.
Six of Murphy's plays were ready to roll - the other five are The Gigli Concert, Famine, The Morning After Optimism, The Sanctuary Lamp and Bailegangaire.
The playwright's daughter, Nell Murphy, along with his London agent, Alexandra Cann, and his long-time Tuam friends, Murt and Dorothy McCormack, were present. Also there from "Arklow-sur-mer", Vincent and Patsi Caffrey, who have been Murphy's friends for years, in spite of the "east-west" divide, said the man from Co Wicklow with a grin.
Looking relaxed and happy was the man of the moment, chairman of the Dβil's subcommittee on the Mini-CTC Signalling Project - (you've guessed it) Seβn Doherty TD, who arrived in to the theatre with his wife, Maura Doherty, just before the off, along with his sister, Ann Neary and some friends, including Ann Campbell.
The US ambassador, a Boston man, Richard Egan, with his wife Maureen Egan, thought the play was "wonderful - it's kind of brutal".
The plays will continue to run on different nights at the Abbey and the Peacock theatres throughout this week, while A Whistle in the Dark runs in repertory with The Gigli Concert until December 1st.