`Now I know how the cardinals feel," sighs Tony O Dalaigh, surveying a table full of papers, files and cups of coffee. After hours of deliberations, the three judges of The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards have yet to reach a final decision on the shortlist and estimate there's another hour and a half before the white smoke goes up. "There's just such a strong spread this year," explains O Dalaigh, the director of the Dublin Theatre Festival and a judge for the second year running. "We really saw such a wide variety of theatre as there were none of the blockbusters like McDonagh's Leenane Trilogy of last year."
Micheal O'Siadhail, poet and "avid theatre-goer since I was the back half of the pantomime cow in the Abbey", agrees: "It's quite incredible the amount of good theatre we've seen, given the size of Ireland." Meanwhile, novelist Anne Enright was impressed by the "community of theatre-goers around the country; there was a real sense of witnessing something."
They are undoubtedly the most qualified trio to discuss the theatre of the past year if sheer volume is taken into account. Between them they covered 130 shows, averaging three shows a fortnight, although some weeks were bumper ones, with three or four performances on the trot. They are agreed on two things: how good it was to see so many new Irish plays and how enjoyable it was to see more theatre outside the capital. "There was an absolute feast of theatre outside Dublin," comments O'Siadhail, while Anne Enright has a list of new theatres she will be returning to again and again this year.
She was also surprised by how much she enjoyed the experience of constantly heading out into the night to see new shows. "I was a bit daunted to be honest, but it was great fun." Following actors throughout the year and observing the range of acting skills they possessed was particularly interesting. Tony O Dalaigh says, "The sheer number of actors was astonishing - we were seeing a whole wave of new talent."
Across the board, it was the individual performances which really grabbed the attention of the judges. "Even if a production wasn't up to much there would usually be one or two actors that really shone," Enright explains. Indeed, this seemed to be what most of the deliberations for the short list were about - compromise. "Due to the joint nature of the judging process sometimes you'd have to agree to leave a certain performance out and often it really hurt," sighs O'Siadhail.
There is very little taken into account when it comes to deciding between big budget productions and smaller fringe shows. "Acting is acting," says Tony O Dalaigh, "We were very determined not to put somebody in as a kind of token, as what we were looking for was excellence. You can have excellence on a tiny budget if you have imagination." Anne Enright agrees ruefully: "In fact there was too much of it about - excellence."
In any judging process, the issue of personal taste must arise, so how did the trio manage to get around a personal hatred for, say, the works of Shakespeare? "I think if you accept responsibility as a judge you agree to go at it with an open heart and open mind" asserts O'Siadhail, while Tony O Dalaigh declares that all theatre is subjective anyway. Anne Enright was pleasantly surprised by just how much her taste was challenged by being a judge for the year. "My own personal taste was unsettled, provoked and changed in a good way."
With a couple of hours of hard work ahead it is possibly a bad time to ask whether the judges have been put off theatre for life, but surprisingly, the answer is a resounding No. Admittedly, O'Siadhail is heading off straight away for his first holiday in a year, while Anne Enright says the airport road has been calling to her for some time. "I was amazed by how difficult I found not being able to leave Ireland for the year. It was Ireland I got sick of, not the theatre."
O'Siadhail has the final word for them all: "Really I came away with a great sense of humility. It was a privilege to see so much theatre and then realise that it will still be thriving without us next year."