The woman who said she would gut the Peacock is now the venue'sdirector. Ali Curran speaks out to Helen Meany.

When the redevelopment of the Abbey's building was first proposed, in 2000, Ali Curran, the director of Dublin Fringe Festival, was in iconoclastic mode.

"The Peacock isn't working at all. I'd gut the place," she told this newspaper. "It's a total disaster to have a raised stage and proscenium arch in a space that is dedicated to staging new writing or taking new approaches to classical texts."

Eighteen months later, as she begins her tenure as the venue's director, she hasn't changed her views, but they are tempered by the reality that the National Theatre's second auditorium is now her responsibility. Daunting? A little, perhaps, but Curran seems fired up rather than nervous.

After five years as director of a multi-arts festival with which she has become synonymous, the 30-year-old Belfast woman is excited by the challenge ahead. There have been periods when the Peacock was managed as a separate entity - most recently by Douglas Kennedy, in the 1980s - but they were short-lived.

Curran's is essentially a new position, created by the Abbey's artistic director, Ben Barnes, with the aim of rejuvenating the Peacock and differentiating its activities from the programme of the main stage.

Curran likes to be in at the beginning of projects, breaking new ground, stretching her abilities, taking risks. Passionately committed to innovation, she is a producer rather than a director, whose talents lie in bringing artists together, initiating projects, commissioning work and managing its development. On a three-year contract, to be reviewed by both sides after her first year, she will inevitably be under the spotlight. The theatre world will be eager to observe how a forthright communicator, accustomed to a high degree of autonomy, will fare within the walls of a national cultural institution.

"I have always been very independent," she says, "but I think it will work. I could do with developing the skills of working in an institution. I enjoy collaboration - but of course it's easy to say I'm a team player when I've always been head of the team, the boss."

Curran will be represented at the Abbey board table by Barnes. "I will agree policy with Ben and with the board. My first task is to develop a blueprint for the development of the space, a policy to bring the Peacock up to scratch as a vital performance venue. The documentation will be presented to the board, and if it's ratified I can get on with the work."

On the question of how her role will dovetail with existing structures, she chooses her words carefully. "The relationship with Ben Barnes will be collegiate and I will refer to him for advice. It's important that we develop trusting and open relationships over the next 12 months. We're all learning how best to work in tandem. I will need to take into account the in-house expertise in all departments and move forward in a way that's mutually agreed, towards a common goal."

In the Dublin Fringe Festival, writing and direction have often taken second place to production style and performance. For her job at the Peacock, this emphasis will be reversed. Staff in the Abbey's recently revamped literary department will become allies in the quest for new writing. Further down the line, Curran hopes to co-operate with them in seasons of readings, dialogue, debates - "a salon".

"Their knowledge of texts is a catalyst, a fertiliser. Though I'm not a dramaturge, I can identify a good play. It's up to Jocelyn Clarke, as commissioning manager, to draw my attention to writers that will excite me and whose work we can develop."

So, the Peacock will retain its commitment to staging new writing? "Yes, absolutely. I'm open to the application of new performance styles in relation to writing and to new interpretations of classic texts, but the stagings will always be grounded in the written word."

Curran's antennae extend beyond local - and Northern Irish - writing to recent English and Scottish work. She has already had conversations with the dynamic Traverse Theatre, in Edinburgh, about a loose partnership agreement and meetings are in train with London's Royal Court and Royal National Theatre, to look at ways of exploring common denominators.

"We are all asking how theatre helps us to understand the world we live in better," Curran says.

As well as staging new British writing at the Peacock, she is keen that London and Dublin occasionally join forces to produce English-language premieres of contemporary European plays.

As Fringe Festival director, Curran strove to explore the spaces - and the overlaps - between different art forms and performance disciplines, and the festival established an audience for this that could now be served by the Peacock.

"My Fringe experience was invaluable," she says. "And I want to bring that to bear here, focusing on developmental work, experimental work. The space is not perfect for dance, as it is quite small, but I'm open to working with directors who are interested in integrating physicality into their work; for example, Annie Ryan of Corn Exchange."

The Peacock's schedule for the next few months is a handover programme from Barnes to Curran. It includes the European premiere of a Canadian play, For The Pleasure Of Seeing Her Again, by Michel Tremblay, directed by the Montreal director Gordon McCall, and two new plays by Irish playwrights: Ensuite by Joe O'Byrne, to be directed by David Parnell, and Communion by Aidan Mathews, directed by Martin Drury. In May, Curran will announce her programme for the autumn.

Her mind is also on the broader picture of the Peacock's potential as a cultural venue. "I want to develop the space as a thoroughfare for arts activity," she says. "It will be a visual arts space, with temporary exhibitions. I want to provide a sense of engagement between what happens on stage and what happens in the environment around the theatre.

"My aim is to create a meeting place and somewhere to hang out: an arts club, really, especially at the weekend. It should be warm and welcoming - welcoming even to people who may go there for a drink or to eat and who may not choose to see the show. Let's bring people into the space first and then expose them to the special energy and atmosphere generated by cultural activity."

Making the space more attractive is her priority. "It needs vast improvement. I have grave concerns about the entry point and the lack of atmosphere - the fact that it's underground. The question of the Abbey building is still pending, with everything to play for. But, in the meantime, the problems haven't disappeared, and something needs to happen now.

"My aspiration would be to make some fairly essential and radical cosmetic improvements in the short term, in tandem with the rebranding of the space. It's important to develop a separate brand identity that articulates the fact that the work in the Peacock is unique and that it's synonymous with experimentation and innovation.

So much work that happens inside the Abbey is inspiring and innovative - the archives and outreach departments, for instance - but there is a problem with how the building engages with the public. This is the main thing I want to change.

"There is a serious question about how the National Theatre engages with the community it exists to serve - that's us, taxpayers, citizens. It should be inviting and allow people a sense of ownership.

It has to foster exchange, debate, communication, and invest back into the community as much as it gets from the artists who work there. In the end, it's all about imagination. We have to provide a context for people to imagine - in any way they see fit."

• The 2002 programme for the Abbey and Peacock theatres will be announced on February 13th. For The Pleasure Of Seeing Her Again opens on February 5th, with previews from Friday.