There's no sign of the one of Derry's finest - Bronagh Gallagher - slowing down as her career advances. The singer, songwriter and actress is again breaking new ground with a second album for her band on the way and her latest movie role set to hit the big screens in December, as Brian McCalden reports.

She already has more film credits than might be expected with no less than 46 different TV and movie titles under her belt - being best known for Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, Sherlock Homes and of course, the recently 'revived' fictional movie band, the eponymous Commitments.

Now, the Londonderry star has completed filming for Glenn Close's Albert Nobbs - the story of a struggle to survive in late 19th century Ireland - where women aren't encouraged to be independent.

Posing as a man so she can work as a butler in Dublin's most posh hotel, 'Albert' (Close) meets a handsome painter and looks to escape the lie she has been living.

Directed by Rodrigo García and co-written by Glenn Close and John Banville, it is the curious tale of a woman passing herself off as a man in late Victorian-era Dublin.

Critics have already said that Albert Nobbs generates a degree of engagement by virtue of its sheer oddness and the carefully calibrated performances of Glenn Close and co-star Janet McTeer.

It is a story with a difference, being based on 19th century Irish writer George Moore's short story The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs.

The movie in turn is based on a stage piece created by the late Simone Benmussa that was first seen in France and was then done in London in 1978 with Susannah York in the title role.

Close herself starred in a 1982 New York production and has ever since tried to mount a screen version and came close about a decade ago with Istvan Szabo, which accounts for the Hungarian director's story credit on the present film.

Set in the fictional Dublin Morrison's Hotel, the Albert Nobbs known to fellow workers and the fancy clientele is a fastidious, polite, impeccably correct gentleman who says little and, off-hours, keeps to himself in a drab upstairs room where, unbeknownst to anyone, he keeps his earnings under the floorboards.

But, when the proprietor Mrs. Baker (Pauline Collins) informs Nobbs that he'll need to share his room (and bed) for a night with a painter doing some touch-ups at the hotel, Nobbs invents every excuse as to why this is impossible.

But before morning, Nobbs' secret it out and the panicked woman, whose only chance of a livelihood in impoverished 1898 Ireland will be ruined if her secret is revealed, implores the stranger not to blow her cover.

Then, the painter, Hubert Page, (Janet McTeer) literally exposes to Nobbs a secret of his own: He's actually a woman as well.

The revelation scene is described as an eye-popper, with this tall, rangy individual, who's always dressed in bulky jackets and sweaters and has a self-rolled cigarette perennially dangling from 'his' mouth's corner, suddenly flashing Nobbs with the sight of two mountainous breasts - and so the confusing scene is set.

Bronagh Gallagher's role is woven into the story as an essential part of the plot and the authentic atmosphere, with two of her Commitments originals, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Angeline Ball also playing roles.

Man Mad

'Hubert' not only passes as a man but is married to a woman - played by the irrepressible Bronagh - although how this came about is never answered which critics say is a fault in the story but one that Albert Nobbs is keen to explore in the plot-line.

But now, instead of playing the only 'genuine woman' in a three-way relationship, Bronagh prepares to gig again in Belfast with her own band - in November.

While Glenn Close has been tirelessly promoting Albert Hobbs - having put up much of the money for the £7.6m production personally, for Bronagh, life, or in her case, stardom, moves on with her forthcoming gig in Belfast much anticipated by those lucky enough to see The Bronagh Gallagher Band last time round at the Black Box in January.

She will debut her second album, prior to the record's release in Spring 2012 in Belfast with her cousin Caolan McLaughlin, and the band of musicians that has accompanied and guided Bronagh as producer on this new album at Oh Yeah as part of Belfast Music Week on Thursday, Nov 3rd.

Albert Nobbs previewed at the Telluride Film Festival last month and was also in the Toronto Film Festival and on US release last month.

It goes on general release across the UK and Ireland from Thursday, 1st December.

See: Bronagh Blasts Belfast

(BMcC/CD)