Pat is from Portlaoise, and her love of theatre was inherited from her late father.

Having begun her career in insurance, she studied speech and drama at night and was a member of an amateur drama group. She ran Andrews Lane Theatre for several years, before becoming its owner and managing director. Pat is married to Hugh and they live in Sandymount with their beloved cat, Maddie.

Breda is from Dublin, with strong Wexford roots. She worked in AIB for 12 years, and studied graphic design, before leaving to develop her career in other directions. She worked with an event management company and Riverdance, before joining forces with Pat to establish Lane Productions in 1998. Breda lives in Clontarf with her husband Cyril, daughters Elizabeth (14) and Ellen (12), and dog Daisy.

Pat and Breda are exceptionally busy as Alone it Stands will open at the Olympia on April 24th, I, Keano, will be touring in Cork, Limerick and Castlebar in April, and the play, Deadline, written by Robert Massey and directed by Breda, will transfer to Andrew's Lane Theatre from 4 April.

Pat on Breda The first time I met Breda was through our amateur drama groups in the late 1970s.

She noticed that I had lost a lot of weight and I was telling her all about this fantastic new place that had opened up called Weightwatchers. If you can talk to someone about the fact that your bum is big, or your arms are fat, you're really sharing something that is very personal to you, and there was an instant connection between us, because we discovered that we had a love-hate relationship with dieting.

We've been on every diet that you could ever think of, and we're going to write a book about it!

It was hard to make ends meet in the early days of the theatre, and I couldn't afford to draw a salary, so to supplement my income, I used to produce programmes for shows. I got the contract to publish the Riverdance programmes, and that put me in contact with Breda again.

When the theatre really began to take off, I asked her to come in and give me a hand, and she never really left. I knew that I had to produce plays myself in order for the theatre to survive, so I suggested to Breda that we might form a company. We started up Lane Productions, and it went really well from the beginning.

We work on lots of productions together, and some separate ones, but we would always be able to talk to one another about all of our projects. We have our own strengths, and I'm not as good as Breda at visualising set design, so even if I was working on something on my own, I'd often ask her to come in and give me an opinion on the set.

I've always found Breda to be a wonderful support to me on a personal level. My dad died two years ago after being ill for a year, and I would sometimes get a call to say he wasn't well. I would leave the office immediately to go to my mum Mary, secure in the knowledge that Breda would have everything sorted.

Even when she was in the States on holiday, and I was really upset about my dad, I called her and talked to her and she was wonderful about it. Breda and I get on fantastically well, and are such close friends. She is an amazing friend, and has a great sense of humour. In the years we've worked here, we've laughed together, cried together, and been utterly exhausted together.

Breda on Pat Pat and I really hit it off from the beginning.

We think very alike, and we've almost the same approach to things, even though we are very different in many respects. When she asked me to work with her, it went really well, and even though I would go off for months doing things like the Eurovision, I always knew I had a desk to come back to in Andrew's Lane.

As a freelance, it was great because it gave me a sense of belonging somewhere, and then things evolved into forming our own company.

I have two children, and like all working women, I have to consider things like midterm breaks and getting the phone call to say a child is sick, but that has never been a problem here, and Pat, and all of the rest of the people who work here, have always been fantastic and really supportive. We've had a hectic year, particularly with I, Keano.

It was such a big production.

We're fortunate that we both have very supportive husbands, and I'm really lucky that my parents, May and Willie, have been brilliant and so fantastic at looking after the girls. Pat and I work really well together, and many of the freelance people who come in to work to us can't believe the ease with which we do things, that are huge projects.

Having fun has always been part and parcel of the whole experience for us, and, because we're such good friends, we're not afraid to say things to one another. We're both quite assertive and upfront, and we believe in working really hard. There is no ego involved with working with Pat; we both do our own things at times, but we never try to outdo one another.

I've always wanted to direct a play, and I got the opportunity to do it with our new play, Deadline, and Pat really encouraged me and made me commit to doing it.

We're both shopaholics, and when we go away, we have a great time shopping.

Mixing friendship and business can be dangerous sometimes, but we've been very lucky, because it has only complemented what we do workwise. She's a very loyal friend and has a lot of common sense, and she has a great sense of humour. I don't think there's anything I couldn't talk about to Pat, and vice versa.