[The Peacock Theatre at the Abbey Theatre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin]

“And then there is the issue of the Peacock. How could it be part of any well-thought-out strategy or understanding of the responsibilities of the National Theatre to commit significant funding to it over a three-year period while tolerating the effective closure of what is, to all intents and purposes, the engine room of the Irish theatre?
The future of the Abbey comes through the Peacock. And if a National Theatre is not about the future, then it is increasingly forced to fall back on institutional rhetoric rather than excellence of performance, to justify its existence.
It also has to be asked: where does the chair and board of the Abbey stand on this? The Peacock going dark for such long periods of time is something that surely, as a strategic issue, had to have board approval?

Garry Hynes, of the Druid Theatre Company.

Fixing the Abbey: where next for the National Theatre? (Garry Hynes, Irish Times)

Previously: Abbey On His Bonnet

Pic: DublinRocks