Dear Colleague and Friend, I am writing to all my international colleagues to inform them that a disgraceful attempt by members of the Advisory Council of the Abbey Theatre fuelled by sections of the Irish media to remove me from my position as Artistic Director of the Abbey has failed.
A shortfall in fundraising for the abbeyonehundred programme, a programme explicitly endorsed by the board of the theatre, precipitated a financial crisis which exposed the underlying systemic difficulties of the Abbey Theatre with regard to its finances and structures.
These underlying problems are the subject of a comprehensive restructuring plan for the theatre, entitled Act 2, of which I am the primary author.
This plan was due to be debated internally and with our key stakeholders in the Arts Council and Government over the coming year with a view to an orderly sequencing and implementation over a 24- to 36-month period.
The board of the theatre decided to bring forward proposals for staff reduction (which form part of the Act 2 strategy) in response to the financial difficulties but, against my advice and wishes, refused permission for the artistic context of such measures to be elucidated. This was the last and most serious constraint on my voice been (sic) heard since the board assumed a more proactive role in the managing of this latest financial crisis.
In time honoured tradition the forces ranged against me used the opportunity of my being out of the country to scapegoat me for problems which are most decidedly not of my making.
Twelve hours after the opening of my production of The Gigli Concert at the Brisbane Festival in Australia, I made the gruelling 26-hour plane journey back to Dublin and arrived to a firestorm of media coverage, a very tense theatre and an artistic community up in arms that the voice of the artistic director was not being heard.
On Tuesday 7th of September at 7.30 in the evening I faced the entire board and Advisory Council of the theatre and mounted a vigorous defence of my position, my integrity and my record and answered all and every question that was put to me.
The motion against me was overwhelmingly defeated with only three votes against. The government came out strongly in support of me and both the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and the Minister for Arts attended at the theatre last night \ at a special unveiling of a new painting for the Abbey collection and a gala performance of my production of The Playboy of the Western World at the Abbey prior to its tour of the United States later this month.
At this highly charged event in the presence of the Prime Minister, Ministers and the assembled media and audience, I only used one sentence from my speech at the unveiling to refer to the dreadful events of the last few days, but it was the most important thing that I could say and something which was carried at the top of all the evening news bulletins. I said: "This work of art (the painting depicts a scene from The Playboy of the Western World) and the production of the play that you are about to see speak more eloquently than I or anyone else can of the importance of art to our individual lives and to the life of the nation. After the events of recent days, the art is back at the centre of the stage and we should all be determined that that is where it will stay." The media volte-face following the rejection of the vote against me was astonishing and a poll on the most popular radio programme in the country recorded 91.7 per cent concurring as to the importance of the Abbey Theatre and its continuance.
I am writing this round robin e-mail because this story has been dominating the news cycle here for some days and has been reaching the international media via the wire services. Knowing only too well how things can be distorted in the media, I am anxious that my friends and colleagues around the world know the truth of what has been happening.
This has been a most distressing time for me and my family and friends and the only thing I am thankful for is the fact that my little daughters, Elishka and Milena, are too young to understand anything of the way their father is being treated by the theatre he has worked tirelessly for and the way he has been portrayed to the entire country by a largely hostile media.
I do believe, however, that my position has been considerably strengthened by the outcome and I intend to use that to do my level best with the board and staff of the theatre and our partners in the Arts Council and Government to finally place this theatre on a financial and structural footing that allows it to realise its great artistic ambitions and will ensure that it can have as profound an influence on Irish life in its second century as it has had in its first.
With every good wish to you, Ben.
• Ben Barnes, Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre.