Two principal jobs at Druid Theatre Company will soon be vacant, as its general manager, Ciarβn Walsh, and administrator, Ciara N∅ Shuilleabhβin, are leaving in late August or early September.

There has been speculation that the departures are due to conflict between the general manager, administrator and artistic director, Garry Hynes, but Walsh says he's leaving for other reasons. "I'm going because of an offer from Riverdance," he says. "If I didn't get the offer . . . I'd remain in Druid."

Many theatre-goers were critical of the company at the recent Galway Arts Festival for concentrating on out-of-town runs and not presenting a full production for the festival - something they haven't done for three years.

Walsh says this is because "in the last five years, Druid has gone from being a Galway theatre company to being a producer at the local, national and international level". It's a hard act to balance, he says. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't." Druid is currently staging Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West at the Gaiety, in Dublin.

Many theatre-goers are also critical of the company for failing fully to utilise the Chapel Lane theatre space, Druid's traditional home, which it acquired in 1996 after years of renting. It has been dark for long periods because of the company's recent tendency to use the city's larger Town Hall Theatre. Of the past four productions, only one was staged at Chapel Lane. That may change with the award of a £500,000 redevelopment grant from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands.

This is in addition to the company's Arts Council funding, which amounted in 2000 to €450,000 (more than £354,000), making Druid the third-highest-funded theatre in the Republic last year, a position it shared with Red Kettle of Waterford.