Tom Stoppard's playfully cerebral foray into the 18th century, Arcadia, is currently honoured by a production in French at Paris's La Comedie Francaise. Dublin audiences will have a chance to see if it meets their standards when it opens at the Gate in February, directed by Ben Barnes.
The Abbey follows the return of Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn in January with a new play by Hugh Leonard, Love In The Title, in February, while the Peacock has two new works, The Passion Of Jerome by Dermot Bolger (February), and Darragh Carvill's Observatory in March. The combination of Loose Canon and Webster's The White Devil should be enough to rouse anyone from January torpor: Jason Byrne directs this meaty Jacobean tragedy at Project @ the Mint for three weeks from January 27th. On March 15th, Macnas and the Catalan masters of spectacle, Els Comedients, join forces for a one-off, open-air, night-time show in St Stephen's Green, as part of the St Patrick's Day celebrations. In April and May, Macnas's adaptation of Pat McCabe's The Dead School goes on tour, including a two-week run at the Olympia.
Brian Friel's 70th birthday will be comprehensively celebrated by a "Friel Festival", straddling the Abbey, Peacock, Gate, Lyric and Druid theatres in late spring/early summer. Freedom Of The City, directed by Conall Morrison at the Abbey, will be followed by Dancing At Lughnasa directed by Patrick Mason. In the Peacock, Jason Byrne will direct Living Quarters, followed by Making History, directed by Brian Brady. Aristocrats opens at the Gate in April, followed by Faith Healer in June (directors to be confirmed).
Rough Magic has excavated an unfinished play by Frances Sheridan - better known to us as the mother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan - and actress and writer, Liz Kuti, has added a new ending. The result, The Trip To Bath, will be thronged with strong, bawdy women and directed by Lynne Parker at the Belltable, Limerick, in April. There's more new writing in the pipeline from Druid Theatre, which has commissioned work from Eugene McCabe, Frank McGuinness, Marina Carr and Billy Roche.
Bickerstaffe is planning three "site-specific" productions for the Kilkenny Arts Festival in August, including open-air Shakespeare to be directed by Jimmy Fay. Barabbas: The Company has an as-yet-untitled show, written by Charlie O'Neill, opening at Project @ the Mint in May, before embarking on a major tour of the US with The Whiteheaded Boy.
Other outbound movement includes Corn Exchange's drive to the Greenwich Festival in July with Car Show; Druid's outing to New York early in the year with The Lonesome West, and the Gate's April visit to the Bouffes Du Nord in Paris with Waiting For Godot. The Abbey is bringing The Wake to Edinburgh in August and in early September all 19 plays in the Gate's acclaimed Beckett Festival will be performed at the Barbican Theatre, London.
