Gaiety puts case for renovation funding

SUBSTANTIAL funding for the renovation of Dublin's Gaiety Theatre could offset the need to invest some £20 million in a new centre for the performing arts, according to the theatre's owners.

The Gaiety, which was acquired last year by the British Break for the Border leisure group, awaits a response from the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, on its application for funding to upgrade the building. It has made the case that Dublin lacks a suitable venue to accommodate major theatre, opera and dance productions. For this reason, many foreign companies have had to turn down offers to bring large shows to Ireland.

Mr Tony O Dalaigh, director of the Dublin Theatre Festival, is on record as saying the absence of a stage with adequate depth "currently eliminates 70 per cent of the large scale productions which the festival would like to promote."

Opera Ireland, which also uses the Gaiety, has been constrained in its repertoire by the size of the stage, according to Mr John Costigan, the theatre's executive director, who said this problem had also hampered RTE in producing musicals.

The theatre is seeking substantial aid under the EU funded tourism programme to extend its stage and backstage facilities in order to make it more viable. While awaiting news of this application, it has proceeded with front of house renovations.

Mr Costigan noted that the Gaiety, as Dublin's oldest theatre, is listed for preservation. Its development would build on the long established tradition of theatre going as well as being more cost effective than building a new venue.

"The recently mooted proposals for a docklands arts development could be deemed unnecessary should the Gaiety receive the go ahead," he said.

Last month the Arts Council proposed the idea of developing a Centre for the Performing Arts in Dublin's redundant docklands area as a suitable project to celebrate the millennium.