`CONFOUND the critics!" could well be the war-cry of playwright Hugh Leonard, and that's exactly what he did at the Abbey last Wednesday for the opening of his new play, Love In The Title. Leonard's legendary contretemps with leading theatre critics have entertained newspaper readers over the years, and his barbed nicknames for some of his enemies have passed into common parlance.
It's been no picnic for Leonard lately, but on Wednesday the knives remained in their sheaths. When The Irish Times expressed the hope that Mr Leonard's new play does well, his modest reply was, "It's already doing well."
Friends of Leonard who enjoyed the picnic included German ambassador Hartmut Hillgenberg, US ambassador Michael Sullivan, Greek ambassador Maria Zografou, Harold Fish of the British Council, actors Maureen Pot- ter, Des Keogh, Barbara Brennan and Rosaleen Linehan; writers Tom Kilroy and Ulick O'Connor; and playwright Bernard Farrell.
