You can't wait around in the acting industry expecting an avalanche of offers when you are starting out. That is the advice of Ballysimon Road native Kevin Kiely, who stars and directs in 'Someone Who'll Watch Over Me' which comes to the Belltable later this week.

"When you are doing freelance work, you just can't wait by the phone; you have to go out an make your own opportunities," Kiely says with an industry-savvy tone of someone who has been in this game for decades.

In fact, it has only been in recent years that his career has taken major strides, starting with a scholarship at the Guildford School of Acting, outside London, in 2006. "I auditioned, and got accepted and that was it for me. I was going to be pretentious about it, and say I wanted to go to this school or that school because it is all training at the end of the day; at the end of the day, I was looking for somewhere that was going to pay for that training."

Acknowledging the harsh realities of the acting world, Kevin along with two classmates decided they may as well get one foot up on others by setting up the Isleboro Theatre Company. It is a company with a twist: "I feel that there is a niche for repertoire theatre. It was the way it was done in the sixties and seventies. We could travel with it and do different plays every night. We are already doing it to an extent, as we are rehearsing two plays in tandem for the Edinburgh Fringe."

Isleboro's performance of 'Someone Who'll Watch Over Me' at Edinburgh will precede its run in Limerick. The play initially became renowned in the early nineties, when Frank McGuinness wrote it following on from conversations with hostage journalist Brian Keenan. Therefore, the focus is on the struggles of the three characters of Edward, Michael and Adam, after being taken hostage in Beirut. "I first heard about it three or four years ago," explains Kevin. "I used it as one of my audition monologues to get into drama school. When we were setting up Isleboro, Joe Young (who also appears in 'Someone…') suggested it as a potential piece, as he had seen it at the Edinburgh Fringe."

After that, Kiely threw himself into the researching process with Keenan's 'An Evil Cradling' and fellow hostage John McCarthy's account becoming key texts. "Our production takes from the actual account and marries that with the original play. It is probably a bit more stark, a bit more real, and a bit more dangerous. But there is also a comic side that comes with the hysteria, and the survival tactics," he adds.