Sir, - On February 1st last I wrote to both Martin Fahy, general manager of the Abbey Theatre and to Michael Colgan, director of the Gate Theatre, to ask if they had any plans to introduce signed performances of their productions to cater for people with hearing disabilities.
The Lyric Theatre in Belfast has for some time been operating a policy of having at least one signed performance for each production and people I spoke to in Belfast were astonished that this important facility was not available at either of Dublin's two major (highly-subsidised) theatres.
At the end of March, I wrote to the Minister for the Arts, Sile de Valera, as she has been quoted as saying that arts organisations must cater for people with disabilities (and I presume she didn't only mean people in wheelchairs) and that this would be reflected in their funding.
I received an acknowledgement of my letter from Martin Fahy and I have since been in touch with Kathy McArdle (of the Abbey's Outreach programme) who has been conducting her own investigation into this matter. I am told that the Abbey hopes to have a trial signed performance before the end of the year.
However, to date I have received no reply whatsoever from Mr Colgan at the Gate, and only a token acknowledgement of my letter from the Minister's office saying Ms de Valera was "away from the office at present" (as of March 26th).
Now, that's what I call turning a deaf ear! - Yours, etc.,
Karl O'Neill, Marlborough Road, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.