A probe into the mists of 1998 yields a packed theatre programme: The Abbey's plans make one drool in anticipation. They start with Tom Murphy's The Wake, adapted from his successful novel. Then come Bernard Farrell's Kevin's Bed, a production of Shaw's St Joan and, in October, Marina Carr's latest, The Bog of Cats. And there's more.
Downstairs, the Peacock also has a full schedule, with such plums as Declan Hughes's Twenty Grand and Gary Mitchell's As the Beast Sleeps, both new.
After a revival of Bernard Farrell's hit Stella By Starlight, the Gate will mount an American season with at least two major works. Rosaleen Linehan will star in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, followed by Oscar-winner Frances McDormand, with Liam Cunningham, in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named De- sire. In their spare time, the Gate folk will tour selected Beckett plays to Canada and the US.
The Project's old Essex St venue will finally be demolished in midJanuary, closing with an exhibition called The Walls Come Tumbling Down. The HQ moves around the corner into Eustace St, and plays will continue in Project @ The Mint for at least two more years, pending completion of the planned Temple Bar theatre. First into The Mint next year will be Steven Berkoff's Greek.
Dublin's popular Rough Magic company will this time open in Galway, in the Town Hall Theatre, with Sheridan's The School For Scandal. It will be directed by Lynne Parker, and is described as the most lavish and ambitious show ever undertaken by the company. After Galway, it will go on the top tour circuit, taking in Dublin's Gaiety and Cork's Opera House.
Waterford's Red Kettle's programme includes a couple of inviting premieres. They commence in January with Jim Nolan's The Sal- vage Shop, and later in the year will produce Thomas Kilroy's Metal - quite an acquisition.
Galway's Druid go into action towards the end of March with Brian Friel's Philadelphia Here I Come, in their Chapel Lane venue. They will then be touring plays from The Leenane Trilogy, by Martin McDonagh, to Sydney and New York, but seem to have no involvement with his muchhyped Aran Island Trilogy. (Who has?)
It's a little early to badger the Dublin Theatre Festival people for news of their autumn larks, but they are bent on beating last year's 80 per cent capacity figures. Current negotiations are with Russia, Britain, Belgium, the US, Columbia and elsewhere, and some repatriation of the recent Irish diaspora to the UK is in the air. The programme should be out in early spring, to facilitate visitors from abroad.
That's the shuffle so far. The crystal ball is so seductive that the naive critic in me fantasises about non-stop raves; then I remember Dr Johnson's dictum that to praise everybody is to praise nobody, and the bubble bursts. But we have cause to travel hopefully.