It remains to be seen if the Abbey Theatre will move to the site at Misery Hill, beside the Grand Canal Docks, which has been offered by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA). But the Abbey has to move from where it is now situated. Its site at the corner of Abbey Street and Marlborough Street is too small to accommodate an internationally famous national theatre in the 21st century. The Abbey's board knows this and has indicated a preference to move to Misery Hill where the space would be three times the size of its existing site. But the estimated cost of building a landmark theatre is estimated conservatively to be of the order of £100 million - so without a very significant capital investment by the Government, the move cannot go ahead. When the late Michael Scott designed the present Abbey Theatre, he was mercilessly constrained by the limits of the site and the result was a theatre in which the acoustics were uneven and the audience felt distanced from the actors on the stage. In addition, there is a lack of space backstage for players and the stage crew to function with ease or with such contemporary stage technology as is currently available. It is past time for the Abbey to move on to a new and larger site.
Some of the advantages for the theatre (and its audiences) were enumerated by the Artistic Director, Mr Ben Barnes, at a press conference in Dublin yesterday. The new building could be custom-designed to meet the technical and artistic needs of the National Theatre, and be a distinguished addition to Dublin's architecture and the theatrical fabric of the capital. The Department of Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands is currently undertaking a feasibility study, and the site will - if the project is given the go-ahead - be available sooner rather than later. It will not require planning permission and the theatre would not have to close for an estimated two years to allow modifications of the present building. Better, it would be able to play continuously until its new home is ready for occupation.
It is hard to think of a better way to celebrate the centenary of the Abbey's foundation in 1904 than with performances in a grand new theatre on a fine new site overlooking a plaza and the canal docks. But ultimately it will not be a new building or a fine site that will see the Abbey through the 21st century: it will be the quality of the creativity on its stages that will draw its audiences from the capital, from around the nation and from overseas.
Yet the least that the theatre, its artists and its audiences deserve are the best possible stages upon which to perform and the best possible auditoria in which to witness the creation to best effect. The current offer from the DDDA to provide the docklands site without charge - an offer which must be accepted or rejected by May of this year - would seem to offer the best possible chance for the State to reaffirm its support for a cultural institution that has brought the nation much artistic credit for almost 100 years.