Sir, - I would be more constructive if Fintan O' Toole stopped being a "misery" bent on having "sport" with the future of our National Theatre (The Irish Times, February 10th) and considered a more apt quotation: "There is a tide in the affairs of men. . ." Does it matter what the opinion of the board of the National Theatre was one year ago? Was the site at Grand Canal Quay available to them gratis at that time? If not, they had little option but to espouse staying put and suffer the necessary, but in reality cosmetic, changes to their present home.
Consider some of the pros and cons. If the National Theatre is forced to stay put to satisfy the electoral whims of our political nabobs and changes to the unsatisfactory building are undertaken, both the Abbey and Peacock will be forced to close for two years at least, causing immeasurable damage to their ongoing work. Remember what happened last time! There will be a loss of audience and revenue, and at the end of the exile the Abbey will be doomed to pick up the pieces and return to a building that at best will only have been tinkered with.
A move to a new state-of-the-art theatre, less than a mile away, will not only allow not only for continuity, but at the end of the day present Dublin with four theatres for just double what it will take to go up and down on the current site.
As for the north-south issue - for what it's worth, the work of our National Theatre began south of the Liffey. It found itself on its present site due to the generosity of an Englishwoman, Miss Horniman. There is another theatre north of the Liffey, and a multiplicity of silver screens; but the fact is that audiences do not linger in the area, and no number of spikes in O'Connell Street will make any difference. There is simply nothing to stay for! The Abbey is now open to the public for only about three hours, six days a week. A new theatre must offer attractive restaurants, bookshops and bars, with access during the day as well as before and after the show. But of course we are not talking about Bertie's folly, nor is it his personal lolly. The Old Lady is now saying yes, the time has finally come to leave the morgue and cross the Rubicon. - Yours, etc.,
Louis Lentin, Leinster Road, Dublin 6