Not for the first time in its eventful history, Belfast's Lyric Theatre has hit choppy waters writes Jane Coyle. A brief press statement has announced the Board's acceptance of the resignation of its executive producer John Sheehan who leaves the theatre less than halfway into his three-year contract. He is currently directing rehearsals for Gary Mitchell's As the Beast Sleeps, which opens on May 1st but he will leave shortly afterwards. New Yorker Sheehan inherited declining audiences and financial difficulties but has been unable to make improvements in either direction. Indeed, audience figures have fallen alarmingly since last September and programming has been a real problem.
While his own two productions - How I Learned to Drive and Once Upon a Mattress - were critically well received, neither clocked up anywhere near the required box office results. Although Brian Brady made a valiant attempt on it, Brian Friel's Wonderful Tennessee is generally acknowledged to be a difficult play and David Johnston's version of Mario Vargas Llosa's La Chunga - The Woman of our Dreams, directed by Michael Scott was judged to have been an artistic and commercial disaster.
In the current spring season. there are only two Lyric productions - Sleuth directed by Carolyn Fitzgerald and, imminently, the Northern Ireland debut of Mitchell's play, which was not confirmed when the programme went to press. In between there has been a fine staging of Three Tall Women by Prime Cut and visits from three established touring productions, one of which, John Breen's popular Alone It Stands, returns in June. From then until mid-September the Lyric will be dark, a sad prelude to its 50th anniversary season, which is due to begin then. It has been suggested that frantic moves are now afoot with a view to appointing someone on a one year basis to oversee that landmark event. To add to the difficulties, marketing director Mary Trainor left the Lyric a couple of months ago to take up a post with the Ulster Orchestra, and administrative director Les Maclean makes his departure at the end of this month.