In the first half of this year, Dublin will finally get its Project Theatre back in Temple Bar (see right). The new auditorium will have 250 seats, and there will be a smaller space, The Cube, with 100. Incoming companies will include Rough Magic, Loose Canon and Bedrock, and Marina Carr's Ariel will have an early premiere.
Meanwhile, the Gate Theatre's first new production of the year will be in February; As You Like It, directed by the eminent Jonathan Miller, with a top Irish cast. The Gate is also preoccupied with a West End outing for Krapp's Last Tape (with John Hurt) from its acclaimed Beckett Festival, and an invitation to mount a Pinter Festival in New York in mid-year.
The Abbey will begin by reviving old favourites, such as Dancing at Lughnasa, while new artistic director Ben Barnes shapes his own programme. Then, in April, come the first fruits; Tom Murphy's new A Little Love, A Little Kiss in the main theatre, and Jimmy Murphy's The Muesli Ball in the Peacock.
Michael Scott's SFX Theatre will consolidate its grip on Dublin audiences with his conversion of Yeats's The Dreaming of the Bones into a new opera in January. It will be followed later by an adaptation of Paddy Doyle's searing book The God Squad by the author and Scott.
Rough Magic is still negotiating a three-year programme with the Arts Council. Firm plans now include play readings of 10 UK and US authors in February and March, a revival of Stewart Parker's Pentecost for export to Washington, and a Shakespeare to be announced.
Lots of action outside Dublin, of course, in the first half of the year. Galway's Druid will mount new plays by Marina Carr and Billy Roche, and will tour extensively; a full programme will be announced in February. Waterford's Red Kettle will also have major new works; Kings of the Kilburn High Road by Jimmy Murphy (again) in April, Brian Foster's A Miracle in Ballymore in July and, later, Loughlin Deegan's new The Queen and Peacock.
Letterkenny's sumptuous new theatre, An Grianan, will play host to the major touring companies, opening with Tallaght Civic Theatre's acclaimed production of Beckett's Happy Days and Druid's The Beauty Queen of Leenane. It also plans a significant house production for early summer.
Belfast's Lyric Theatre will emphasise new writing and the northern voice in particular. Works will include Butterfly of Killybegs by Brian Foster (again) and Gary Mitchell's Marching On. Other companies will come in, such as Tinderbox with Joseph Crilly's new On McQuillan's Hill.
It promises to be an ambitious and busy year, with lots more down the road in the second half of the year.