Madam, - In three Artscape columns in the past two months, (April 5th, April 12th, May 17th) theatre in Cork has been criticised on a range of issues from frequency of productions to new writing.
Using dramatic headings such as "Cork theatre crisis", "Cork lacking in drama" and "Theatre drought", The Irish Timesseems to portray Cork as a wasteland for theatre and the Everyman Palace Theatre in particular as a primary culprit. I not only deny that there is a theatre crisis in Cork, but I also regard the random singling out of the Everyman Palace Theatre as a damaging distortion of our work and reputation within the arts sector.
As well as presenting a diverse range of touring theatre the Everyman Palace has been an exceptionally busy building-based producer and employer in recent years. We have toured our productions in Ireland and abroad. Our promotion of new writing has been consistent. Since 2005 we have produced or co-produced eight new theatre pieces, even though we have no mandate or funding for new writing. The creation of the Everyman Palace Studio in 2004 was a serious attempt to provide a resource for new writers and theatre artists.
The work of the Everyman Palace is in tandem with the steady production output of other Cork-based professional entities such as Meridian, Corcadorca, Graffiti, the Granary Theatre and the Mid Summer Festival, all of which consistently engage with new writers.
Like other regional centres dealing with the precarious economics of theatre production and constrained funding, Cork is a city of determined practitioners focused at all times on delivering work of quality, but limited unfortunately to a quantity that is affordable. It is not a crisis we are experiencing, but business as usual.
- Yours, etc,
PAT TALBOT, Director, Everyman Palace Theatre, MacCurtain Street, Cork.