I attended a table quiz in the Front Lounge yesterday evening, to help raise funds for the 14th International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. This is a fortnight long festival running from May 1st to 14th at various locations around the city. It is a platform for new and old writing from both Ireland and abroad. It  features writing from both LGBT writers and straight writers. The themes of the plays tend to be varied but usually involve stories of – or featuring  – the Queer.

It has a jam packed schedule with two completely different programmes for each of the two weeks. In the five or six locations there are 2 separate plays each evening. In total approximately twenty shows are staged.

Well that all costs cold, hard cash. So in typical  Irish style, what better way to persuade theatrical folk to support the festival than to have a pub quiz?

Each team consisted of four people – entrance was a tenner a head.

The quiz started and our hearts sank. This was no easy, breezy quiz. It involved actual knowledge – of which our table seemed sadly lacking.

The capital of Madagascar? (I still don’t know despite hearing the answer).
The fruit with the most Vitamin C? (I said kiwi – in fact it is papaya).
The year the euro currency was introduced (this required a steward’s inquiry – the correct answer is 1999 but as the coins and notes were only introduced in 2002 that was also an acceptable answer.

Our expectations of winning a haul of loot diminished as the evening wore on?

Until the penultimate round, where the compere made the ridiculous announcement that our team (cunningly named ‘An unexpected party’) was in joint third place.

The final round began. The subject was television. In slow motion we answered the questions. We got them all right.

Like the final sequence in the film ‘Chariots of Fire’ as the final scores were announced, we melodramatically approached the finish line. We didn’t win. But we came second.

We’ll all be going to see classical  violinist / dancer / performance artists Lindsey Stirling in Vicar Street on April 5th.

That should be rather jolly.

The concert happens a mere two days before my theatre group’s very own fundraising quiz. We’ve had a play accepted into a theatre festival you see. A festival that takes place on the first fortnight in May …