If you have six names on a list - and they're all good - but you are only allowed to have four . . . Fergus Linehan throws up his hands. Linehan - novelist, playwright and former Arts Editor of The Irish Times - has so many notes and programmes from the 100 theatrical productions he has seen over the past year that he can no longer carry the weight. However, in terms of whittling down that list from six to four, he and his fellow judges of this year's Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards have bitten the bullet. The shortlists are finally ready.
Linehan, Rose Parkinson (festival director of the Galway Arts Festival) and Una Carmody (arts and property consultant) sit in an overheated hotel room surrounded by an array of congealing sandwiches and flaking pastries. Who has the time or energy to eat during the delicate and not so delicate process of negotiation? It's hard enough to make choices on your own, but these three theatre enthusiasts have had to reach a consensus.
By far the easier chore was actually going to the theatre throughout the year: "I enjoyed almost everything I went to," says Carmody, "even plays I had to drag myself out to on a wet Tuesday night. I even enjoyed the travelling." Linehan notes that because so many productions went on tour, he was able to see many of them in Dublin. Galway-based Parkinson was at a disadvantage by comparison: "On average, I saw two plays a week in Dublin. I'd try to get to a matinee on a Saturday afternoon, as well as seeing a show in the evening, so I didn't have to travel twice in the same week."
All three were impressed by the amount of young acting talent around. "It's great that directors are willing to give young actors a chance," says Carmody. "Unfortunately, so many of them are paid a pittance and often not working for long periods," chimes in Linehan. "They'll get work in film, as long as the film industry lasts in this country," says Parkinson. Linehan points out that a lot of young actors are bypassing theatre altogether, because working in film is so much more lucrative.
All three welcome a new direction in Irish theatre whereby some new plays are sourced in the US or on the Continent, instead of theatre companies always choosing the more predictable option of an Irish play or one of "the classics". "It's great to see Irish theatre getting less insular," says Parkinson. "Getting out of the pub for a change, and away from the little house on the side of a mountain."
Linehan's theatre-going this year reminded him of the years he spent as an Irish Times film critic: "If you see everything, it gives you an overview for good or ill of what's going on."
And there were "ill" times as well as good ones. "I saw some truly awful productions," says Linehan. "And I noticed some cliches in the making - too many plays about child abuse; too many about senile mothers taken care of by their repressed daughters or granddaughters." The latter all too reminiscent of Beauty Queen of Leenane, or an even earlier play, Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire.
Carmody feels that "the North" was a too frequent and not always well-developed theme in much of this year's crop of theatre. Linehan agrees, saying that the North's story of sectarian conflict is a theme no longer ripe for the taking: "It's like what happened after the fall of communism: writers are going to have to look for a new topic." All agree that although playwrights often took interesting risks, there were varying degrees of success. One welcome initiative was the tendency for theatre companies to perform in venues other than theatres.
But wait a minute, surely Ireland is coming down with new theatres? Now is surely not the time to be abandoning them in favour of alternative venues? "There are new theatres cropping up all over the place - in Dun Laoghaire, Blanchardstown, Tipperary town . . . There is a tendency to keep building new ones," says Linehan. "I just wonder if enough thought has gone into programming."
Many of the new theatres host touring productions, but Linehan feels they should also "provide a platform for local talent". He cites the new theatre in Letterkenny as a successful example of this combination, as well as being "a beautiful theatre".
Carmody feels the standards of the year's theatre were mixed: "When plays were good, they were very, very good; and when they were bad, they were awful." Parkinson adds: "Quantity is not necessarily quality. It is laudable for theatre companies to be working hard, but what they're producing isn't all wonderful. In the case of some companies - both new and established - I felt there was a lot of laziness."
Certain trends were observed, such as the tendency for new Irish plays to premiere in Britain before coming to Ireland ("Not a trend I like," says Linehan). Then there was the usual shortage of women playwrights. This complaint brings with it the associated problem of a lack of meaty parts for actresses (except in the case of Shaw, says Carmody, who wrote good roles for women). The result was a "long list" of actors which far outnumbered the female equivalent, says Linehan, who adds: "There is no agenda against women writers. People are only too glad to go to plays by women, and most members of theatre audiences are women." Carmody wonders if there is "an unconscious bias" against women playwrights, based on their lack of precursors. "You can't say of a new woman playwright, `this is the new Tom Murphy', or `this is the new Brian Friel'." Parkinson observes: "The theatre scene is still so traditional. All the lighting people are men, and the costumes people are women. It seems that set design is the only cross-over area."
Was it difficult, coming to an agreement? "We were 80 per cent in agreement with each other," says Parkinson. "We all wanted to reward a combination of quality and effort," adds Carmody. "In the end," says Linehan, "talent is all."
Parkinson concludes with a tongue-incheek grimace: "Oh yes, 'tis all smiles now, but the worst is yet to come." "Agreeing on four is one thing," says Carmody, rolling up her sleeves. "When it's down to a single choice, that's another question altogether."
The Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards will be presented in Dublin on Sunday, February 11th, and announced in The Irish Times on Monday, 12th.