The bank is not for changing

ArtScape: It looks like the Bank of Ireland is not for turning on the issue of closing its arts centre in Dublin's Foster Place. Those who attend recitals, exhibitions, poetry readings or book launches - most of them free events - in the beautiful, centrally located arts centre, will lose out. And those who put on events there - the Mostly Modern music series and Poetry Ireland spring to mind - will certainly be lost without the venue.

The bank says a study it commissioned from Abhann consultants, as part of a 2005 assessment its corporate citizenship role, indicated the facilities were not up to scratch for a modern arts centre and that it could therefore attract only a limited range of events. About 15,000 people attend the centre every year, but that volume isn't seen as a good enough return for an investment of €1 million a year, on rental and a staff of 11 (three of them full-time).

Dan Loughrey, head of group corporate communications at the bank, this week indicated that the issue was not one of saving money. He said the funds spent on the centre would go towards the bank's social and community responsibilities, but that it had to look at whether "greater value for more people" could be had for its shareholders' investment. While the money will not go to boost the bank's already hefty profits, it is most likely not destined for the arts.

The building is owned by seven individuals based in Galway, and it never had any association with Temple Bar Properties (now called Temple Bar Cultural Trust), contrary to some perceptions. The bank's lease on the protected structure is ongoing, and no decision has been made about what happens next to the building. The bank has run the arts centre for 11 years; prior to that, the building was used once a year for its agm.

The arts infrastructure today is a world away from what it was 11 years ago, with arts centres all over the country, but, curiously, the scarcity of venues in Dublin city centre, particularly for smaller events, is probably more acute than ever. If the bank's sudden decision points up anything it is probably this paucity of venues. There are myriad strategies and policies in place, but whose responsibility should it be, particularly in this age of plenty, to provide venues?

Quarter above water

With the recent announcement of the £300 million (€434 million) development of Royal Avenue, the transformation of the old Ulster Bank building into the Merchant Hotel and a new arts centre in Talbot Street on the horizon, Belfast's Cathedral Quarter is slowly emerging out of the darkness, writes Jane Coyle.

For the past seven years, the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival has been a pulse behind the regeneration of this historic but rundown area of the city, its programme of cutting-edge international events bringing vibrancy to the old cobbled streets.

Laganside Corporation, the organisation charged with forging radical change on the once-dingy waterfront of the River Lagan, has been a staunch supporter. But Laganside is due to exit the scene in a year's time and with it will go substantial funding. Although the festival has had a small uplift - from £60,000 (€86,881) to £69,000 (€99,913) - in its Arts Council of Northern Ireland core funding, director Sean Kelly has no doubt that, with the ending of a three-year tranche of EU Peace II money, next year's event will struggle to keep its head above water.

As for 2006, Kelly reckons it to be "our most ambitious programme to date. The real star of the programme is the new 300-seater Black Box venue in Hill Street, which has been a long time coming but is one of the most exciting developments for the arts in the city for a long time". Meanwhile, the "World" marquee in the now-pedestrianised Custom House Square will resound to music from Cuba, Africa, India and Siberia and will host the Celtic Fiddle Festival.

Included on a crammed bill of big-name participants are Tariq Ali, Edna O'Brien, Chuck Palahniuk, Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Hazel O'Connor, Courtney Pine and Aisle 16, the world's first "poetry boyband", who wowed the audience at the launch in the John Hewitt Bar with their subversive take on 21st-century life.

It all promises to add up to what one seasoned commentator has described as "an annual injection of Botox for the flabby cultural buttocks of the city", running from April 27th to May 7th.

Absurd but true

It's not an easy scene to visualise, Waiting for Godot performed in the Peking opera style by a theatre troupe from Taiwan, but this unusual take on Samuel Beckett's play is one of four productions that Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre will be offering up in a festival to mark the centenary of the dramatist's birth, writes Clifford Coonan.

Beckett has a cult following in China, where drama students and intellectuals will tell you that the Theatre of the Absurd has more relevance than ever since China's remarkable economic rise in the last 25 years.

Just in case the text, or indeed the subtext, of the play is too difficult to follow amid the cymbals and high-pitched singing that characterises much Peking opera, Taiwan's Contemporary Legend Theatre will perform Waiting for Godot with Chinese and English subtitles.

Having witnessed the pleased but confused reaction to the Gate's Godot in Beijing during the Ireland-China Cultural Festival in 2004, some audience members will be looking forward to the festival contribution of the Fei Na Er drama troupe from Shanghai International Studies University, Godot Comes.

Other productions include Molloy (directed by Judy Lovett) and A Piece of Monologue (directed by Walter Asmus) from the Gare St Lazare Players, starring Conor Lovett. Long-time Beckett collaborator Asmus will also direct Endgame with a Chinese cast.

The festival runs for the last two weeks of this month and is co-presented by the Consulate General of Ireland, the Contemporary Legend Theatre and the Gare St Lazare Players. It will also feature workshops, lectures and an exhibition.

* If you're heading to something at the University Concert Hall in Limerick this month, you could strike lucky. Celebrating 12 years since opening its doors, UCL has just figured out that it's about to welcome its millionth visitor some time this month. That person will get two free tickets to every show there for the next 12 years, as well as nice extras such as a weekend in Cork's Radisson SAS Hotel. Since September 1993, UCL has had, on average, more than 82,000 people attending performances each year.

Following Maire Hoctor TD's complaint about RTÉ showing the Beckett films late at night, when many are asleep, the broadcaster points to its Beckett 100 Night on RTÉ2 tonight, with more than four hours of prime-time viewing. And, RTÉ stresses, its TV schedule is just one aspect of its Beckett centenary celebration, which includes a CD set of Beckett's trilogy, a book of essays by leading Beckett scholars, and a website, www.rte.ie/beckett100.

On the eve of its spring season, presenting La Cenerentola (Cinderella) and Faust, Opera Ireland's chief executive of 21 years, David Collopy, announced this week that he is to leave the post at the end of his contract in December to develop a project management company. He had enjoyed "tremendous experiences with the company, especially in the latter few years when it has received wide critical acclaim and awards for its work and has begun to have a significant international impact". He wished Opera Ireland well in its next phase. Board chairman Derek Keogh praised Collopy's "outstanding contribution to the organisation, moulding the entity into an internationally respected opera company. We will miss him greatly".

The notion of "Michael Collins - the Musical" may bring a grin to the face, but it's going to happen. Musical director and choreographer Bryan Flynn of TheatriX Ltd, Waterford, has been developing Michael Collins for more than two years, and to mark the 1916 anniversary, there will be a"concert performance" based on music and dialogue developed in workshop.

Starting with a scene where the cast and audience of a WB Yeats play leave the Abbey Theatre to join in or watch the 1916 events, the musical will span the life of Collins from his childhood in west Cork to his death in 1922. Joe Doyle plays the Big Fella. Performances of the work-in-progress are on April 21st and 22nd at Waterford's Theatre

Royal and 24th, at Cork Opera House, tickets €18.