Madam, - Part of the solution to the current Abbey Theatre débâcle may involve the dissolution of the National Theatre Society as a limited private company. The current anachronistic - not to say untenable - structure, whereby it is a limited private company while at the same time being funded by the Arts Council, and is also tied into national wage agreements similar to any civil service body but is not fundable through the Department of Arts financial breakwater, seems in no small part to have contributed to an absurd situation.
That the future of the National Theatre must centre on a sound artistic vision is unquestionable. That such a vision is underpinned by economic strategies which actually work is essential. The current strategies clearly don't. Nor is fund-raising the solution, without the kind of creative vision that would make the National Theatre the sort of institution people feel they must urgently invest in.
One would like to think that a five- or 10-year strategic plan could also work to the benefit of the Abbey. And whereas the national theatre does not need to be encumbered by an over-administering, paper-toting cabal with conflicting vested interests, it does clearly need the input of people who do not regard every director's artistic vision as that of an over-ambitious autocrat. The Abbey's history is studded with uneven relationships between artistic directors and board, and most directors serve the interests of the theatre first and foremost, something which has been overlooked in the current white heat of possessive debate.
For all the puny utilitarianism of its architecture, for all the rankling decisions and automatic complaints about programming (from armchair theatre-theorists), the Abbey is still the national theatre and therefore carries an entirely different aesthetic responsibility to any other city theatre throughout the country. In the year of its centenary one would definitely like to see more new plays - if they are there - being produced. But this is also a time for reassessment of the classics and about-to-be-classics. Whether or not we regard these as cutting-edge theatre, or dramatic theatre, or whatever it is that theatre means to each of us personally, they are actually one of the few challenging representations of our nation's story as it has unfolded. There is no point carping about the Murphys, the Friels and the Synges. They said something important that is still worth stating.
Presumably though, the time-span for that "something important" is diminishing rapidly because it is being gradually eroded by the almost absurdist structures that prevail. - Yours etc.,
MARY O'DONNELL, Newtownmacabe, Maynooth, Co Kildare.
Madam, - The news that the contract of Jocelyn Clarke, literary manager of the Abbey Theatre, will not be renewed in October, and that he will not be replaced, is extremely disturbing.
Over the past year I have worked very closely with Mr Clarke. I wrote seven or eight drafts of my play Beauty in a Broken Place which ended its run at the Peacock on September 11th, using his skill and flair as an editor. I had a meeting with him once a month for 10 months, much of the time re-writing and re-drafting at his suggestion. He attended most of the rehearsals, and was for me and the director and the actors an invaluable asset.
I believe that every theatre which produces new drama needs a single individual working from within the building whose job is to commission and read new plays, work closely with writers and be constantly available. The news that the Abbey and the Peacock intend to scale down the production of new plays, coupled with the likely departure of Mr Clarke, means that new plays will not be sent to the Abbey, but to other Irish producers and, more importantly, to London, which has long been the refuge of Irish writers when Irish theatres become inhospitable.
It is hard to know what the Abbey is for, and what the purpose of its large grant is, if not to nurture and produce new plays. It should begin by making clear that Jocelyn Clarke will continue his work at the theatre. - Yours, etc.,
COLM TÓIBÍN, Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2.