THE WINDOW cleaners were out yesterday putting the final sheen on the facade of the new Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin which opens tonight.
President Mary McAleese will be the guest of honour for the opening night which features the world’s best-known ballet, Swan Lake, with performers from the world’s best-known ballet company, the Bolshoi. All seven shows are sold out.
Ireland’s new cultural ambassador Gabriel Byrne, broadcaster Gay Byrne, songwriters Paul Brady, Christy Moore, Chris de Burgh, film director John Boorman, actor Brendan Gleeson and writer and director Rebecca Miller, wife of Daniel Day-Lewis and daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, are all expected to attend.
There will be no opening speeches. “We will let the place speak for itself,” said general manager Stephen Faloon of the €80 million Daniel Libeskind-designed theatre which has 2,111 seats.
It is the second to open of the three buildings (the others being the O2 and the Convention Centre) which it is hoped will transform the docklands area.
Staff were busy stocking the theatre’s seven bars yesterday, shifting sofas around (the whole place smells of new carpets and furniture) and scrubbing down the outside for the arrival of the special guests.
Inside, the performers of the Russian State Ballet were going through the last stages of preparing for Swan Lake.
The ballet will have between 15 and 20 changes of scene all operated through the 66 different flybars which makes it possible to stage elaborate productions never staged here before.
“I’ll probably be shot for saying this, but I think we are nearly there, but in live theatre anything can happen,” Mr Faloon admitted. “We have no previews, we’re going straight into it.”
To date 120,000 tickets have been sold for a variety of shows. “There’s a hunger for this type of theatre,” Mr Faloon added. “This is a good news story in a recession.”
