The artistic director-designate of Dublin's Abbey Theatre is Ben Barnes. He will take up office next year, when the current director Patrick Mason steps down. The appointment was agreed at a meeting of the National Theatre board on Tuesday. "I'm now 43 and I'm ready," said Mr Barnes yesterday. "This is the right time for me. I have energy and yet I have experience."
Mr Barnes feels that his long relationship with the Abbey - he has directed over 40 productions there - as well as his experience in non-subsidised and international theatre, won him the job. The play he directed there most recently was Kevin's Bed by Bernard Farrell, which goes into rerehearsal next week to re-open on August 17th.
Although he has directed a broad range of work from Juno and the Paycock to John Banville's hit show for the Peacock, The Broken Jug, and was one of the founders of Opera Theatre Company in the mid-1980s, he is most associated with plays by Bernard Farrell and John B. Keane.
A native of Wexford who was heavily influenced by the Opera Festival's presence in the town, Mr Barnes went to UCD, where he was active in Dramsoc.
He lived in Spain, worked in a restaurant and campaigned for preservation of Wood Quay, before getting an Arts Council bursary to train as a theatre director with the Irish Theatre Company and the Abbey, where he worked closely with the then artistic director, Joe Dowling. The appointment of an artistic director-designate is unprecedented. Mr Barnes says Mr Mason is handing him the reins at a time when the theatre is healthy both artistically and financially and, while he will not discuss specific plans, he says his theme will be "inclusiveness". "All the people who work in the theatre in Ireland can work in the Abbey."