Madam, - As a regular attender at our National Theatre, both in the Abbey and the Peacock, I wonder if Jim McCarthy (September 13th) is speaking of the same theatre when he questions whether or not its programme can match the emotional engagement experienced on his visits to the Gate and the Focus. This celebratory year has seen a series of plays that have not only taken me on an emotional and intellectual journey but have also brought great joy.
I will never forget the glorious presentation of Festen, an emotional rollercoaster from Warsaw, the heart-wrenching but finally exuberant Dance in Time from Budapest, brilliant new writing from Seamus Heaney and Tom Murphy as part of the European Season (The Burial at Thebes and The Cherry Orchard respectively). Equally deserving of praise was the sheer comedic indulgence of The Shaugraun, which played to full houses during the summer.
As debate rages on about the place of the National Theatre in Ireland's cultural life, let us not forget that this year's programme is a diverse one that offers theatre for everyone. And this being The Abbey Theatre, is it not appropriate to have controversy and calls for resignations as have happened so many times over the last 100 years? - Is mise,
DARA CAROLAN, Owens Avenue, Dublin 8.
Madam, - I am dismayed to read in The Irish Times of the financial crisis that has beset the Abbey in its centenary year. Even more dismaying is the news that the Government is considering three inner-city sites (excluding that of the Carlton in O'Connell Street) as possibilities for its relocation. What is it about political life that makes the simple and the obvious (as also in the case of the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road) seemingly impossible of fulfilment?
We are always being told by politicians that There Is No Alternative to their latest policy on Northern Ireland/the North. Let me say, then, in reply that there is no alternative to the siting of our National Theatre than at the centre of our national life, namely, next to the GPO and opposite the Gresham Hotel. We cannot always rely upon these things being done on our behalf by our great men and women such as W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. A national theatre requires a national effort. Surely the great and the good of our own generation can now come together to ensure that the Abbey is permanently endowed where it belongs, in O'Connell Street. - Yours, etc.,
GERARD MORGAN, FTCD, Trinity College, Dublin 2.
Madam, - In this centenary year of the Abbey Theatre, perhaps a thought can be spared for Ernest Blythe.
He may not have been everybody's cup of tea. However, he surely deserves better of Ireland than that the grave where he and his wife are buried in Prospect Cemetery, Glasnevin, should be left in the sadly dilapidated state in which it has lain for several years.
A case for the National Graves Association?
- Yours, etc.,
DESMOND KETT, Kilbarrack Gardens, Dublin 5.