With two months to go before the opening of the eagerly awaited Tallaght Civic Theatre, its new director, Brid Dukes, is busy programming and talent-scouting from her office "in the back of the car". Designed for the South Dublin County Council by architect Eddie Conroy, the new venue comprises a 320-seat theatre, with flexible seating to accommodate theatre in the round and a studio space, called Loose End, with 60-80 seats. There's also, of course, a bar and a cafe, which will be open for lunch. The cost of the project is £3 million, one third of which has come from the EU, through the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and Islands. With a full-time staff of seven people, the theatre will serve the catchment area of South Dublin County Council, which has a population of 220,000, and Dukes hopes that it will also attract people from "down the road" in Blessington, Naas and Newbridge. Situated at the north side of The Square, adjacent to the UCI cinema, it should also attract audiences from other parts of Dublin, particularly when the proposed Luas rail-link opens.
The dearth of medium-sized venues has been an ongoing problem for many independent theatre companies, which the Tallaght theatre should help to relieve. It opens in March with the Irish premiere production from the Bush Theatre London, with an Irish cast, of Mark O'Rowe's new play, Howie The Rookie, and other companies signed up by Dukes for later in the year include Rough Magic, Opera Theatre Company and the Abbey.
"It's astonishing how much good work there is out there - there has been an explosion in theatre," Dukes says, comparing the current scene with when she ran Limerick's Belltable Arts Centre in the early 1980s. It will be interesting to see where the new venue will fit into the Dublin theatre landscape, and what its relationship with the other theatres will be. "I see the role as complementary. I don't think we'll be taking audiences away from the city centre theatres. We'll be adding to the choice available. This will all become clearer in the year ahead. What I want to programme here is the most exciting work that's out there. I'm wide open and everybody has my number." Just in case you don't, it's: 086-8393514.
