It's set to be a good year for theatre. Arts Council funding has increased, and many companies now have three-year multi-annual funding in place. The major festivals report that ticket sales increased significantly this year and they look forward to next. The National Theatre is considering a number of sites, so anticipate an early announcement about its new location, although the move would not happen for some time.
The Abbey plans a major Tom Murphy retrospective to run during the Dublin Theatre Festival; the programme is unconfirmed, but choices may include A Whistle in the Dark and The Gigli Concert on the main Abbey stage, with The Morn- ing After Optimism, The Sanctuary Lamp and Bailegangaire at the Peacock. The Abbey's recent Translations production will tour in Europe.
John B. Keane's Big Maggie opens mid-February directed by Garry Hynes, now an associate director with the National Theatre; Iphigenia, by Euripides, will be directed by Katie Mitchell, in late March; the Berlin Schaubuhne company presents Brecht's Mann ist Mann at the Peacock in April. Conor McPherson directs Eden, a new play by Eugene O'Brien. Down the Line, by Paul Mercier, and the Abbey production of Medea, starring Fiona Shaw, will both return.
The highlight at the Gate is likely to be the Irish premiere in April of Conor McPherson's new play, Port Authority - three monologues in three different time frames - opening in London and transferring to Dublin in April. Also at the Gate is Emile Zola's Therese Raquin, directed by Michael Caven in February; Neil Labute directs his play, Bash, in April; and Pinter's The Homecoming opens at the Gate in June before it goes to New York for a Pinter Festival organised by the Lincoln Centre.
Druid Theatre Company will stage the long-awaited first two productions in its Synge Festival, likely to begin next autumn. Two productions will be staged every two years over a three-year period, with a season of all the plays at the end of the third year. Druid also plans to produce a new work by Geraldine Aron in the spring, while the Druid Debut series of semi-staged first plays from first-time writers continues. Sligo's Blue Raincoat production of Macbeth opens in a newly refurbished theatre space, The Factory, in March, followed by a tour; the world premiere of Michael Hamilton's new play, Happens, opens in The Factory in November. In Limerick, the fourth annual Unfringed festival runs from January 25th to February 3rd; one of the featured shows is Gift, by the Irish Times/ESB playwriting bursary award winner, Ursula Rami Sarma. The festival will also feature Bickerstaff's recent play by Arthur Riordan and Des Bishop, called Rapeire, "a hip-hop odyssey through Ireland's political culture".
In Cork, Corcadorca Theatre Company continues site-specific work with summer Night's Dream in a city park next summer. The company also brings a new play, Noose, to the Theatre Symposium in January. Waterford's Red Kettle Theatre Company presents Conal Creedon's new play, Glory Be To The Father, in March; and a new play, Hummen, by new playwright and 62-year-old ex-Kerry footballer, Tony Guerin, opens in Waterford in the autumn.
Changes are afoot at Belfast's Tinderbox Theatre Company - a new artistic director will be appointed early in 2001. Belfast-based Prime Cut Theatre Company will stage the Irish premiere of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women at the Lyric Theatre in January, which will tour.
The Lyric's 50th anniversary is 2001, after a financially and critically turbulent period. Another change on the landscape is the departure of Mikel Murfi from Barabbas; Barabbas itself will produce three devised shows by Veronica Coburn, Raymond Keane and Gerry Stembridge. Another 2001 highlight will be Marcel Marceau at the Olympia in February. And if that's not enough, there's the Galway Arts Festival (July 17th-29th), The Dublin Theatre Festival (October 1st-13th), and The Dublin Fringe Festival (September 24th-October 13th).
Ian Kilroy