Mr Ben Barnes, artistic director of the National Theatre, yesterday reaffirmed his commitment to the plan to develop the Abbey at its existing location, rather than move to another site.
At the launch of the theatre's programme for this year, he said he was pleased that all parties subscribed to the plan to seek private-sector interest for the public-private partnership.
The project would create a signature development for a 21st-century theatre in a dramatic and meaningful civic setting "addressing the river", and was part of the plans for the urban regeneration of O'Connell Street and the north-east inner city, he said.
Commenting on the Government cutback in arts funding, Mr Barnes regretted that "events have cast a long shadow over" the "initial commendable ambition" of the blueprint for the arts in the Third Arts Plan. He said the Arts Council - and the Abbey, as its single biggest client - must now argue to ensure the ambition of the arts plan can be brought back on track.
He pointed out the "very obvious geographical conundrum, the old core/periphery issue, with a peculiar twist", where the Abbey's national touring has halted because of funding, while the well-developed local arts infrastructure may struggle to find shows to put on. "The Abbey has, for want of a better term, prêt à porter product and technical resource. I would take the opportunity to issue an open invitation to venues around the country to join with us in finding a creative and elegant way of achieving a balanced solution between capacity at the centre and scarcity of product on the periphery."
The 2003 programme includes two new plays, by Tom Kilroy (The Shape of Metal, as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival this autumn), and Hilary Fannin (Doldrum Bay, at the Peacock in May); work from the Irish and European repertoires (Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba; Ibsen's The Wild Duck, adapted by Frank McGuinness; Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, Synge's The Playboy of the Western World) as well as revivals of The Plough and the Stars and Eugene O'Brien's Eden.
Hungarian Laszlo Marton, director of the Vigszionhaz in Budapest, who directs The Wild Duck at the Peacock in the summer, will also lead a two-week workshop in the Peacock's international director's residency in July.
Mr Barnes defended balancing new and established work in the programme: "As long as the productions avoid reverence and are attempting, as they do, with contemporary stagecraft and sensibilities, to give a fresh and invigorating account of these classic dramas, then the presentation of these works should be a cause for celebration. I believe that a Muscovite theatre without Chekhov at the Moscow Art Theatre would be a poorer place; I believe a Parisian theatre without Molière at the Comédie Française would be unimaginable; that the British theatre without Shakespeare at the RSC is unthinkable and that for our own people and visitors alike, the Abbey must ensure that Synge and O'Casey have a pervasive presence in its repertoire."
The full programme can be viewed at www.abbeytheatre.ie
