THE first casualty of this year's Belfast Festival at Queen's occurred even before the programme was launched, writes Jane Coyle.

The locally based Point Fields Theatre Company announced the withdrawal of Andy Hinds's eagerly awaited new play The Starving and, with it, the closure of the company, as the result of insurmountable financial difficulties. Hinds's play, set within the city walls during the siege of Derry, had been commissioned for the company's 1995 studio season of new writing, and since developed to full production. It represented Point Fields's raison d'etre, its commitment to nurturing challenging new work for the theatre, borne out by plans to stage new plays by Owen McCafferty, Gary Mitchell, Martin Lynch, Eddie Kerr and novelist Deirdre Madden, as well as a season by women writers.

Artistic director Joe Devlin, who took up his post after the debut production of Rinty by Martin Lynch - and who founded Point Fields, but resigned from the board only a couple of months ago - is understandably rueful at the turn of events. He reflects that the company was constantly battling with inadequate Arts Council funding, running to keep abreast of a bank overdraft, while finding it increasingly difficult to persuade the private sector to take the perceived risk in sponsoring new work.