Slβn to Amharclann de h═de?

Dublin's professional Irish-language theatre company, Amharclann de h═de, will not be staging any productions this year, writes P≤l ╙ Muir∅. Its board has initiated a review of its work and the company's office in Dublin has been closed but retained. The Arts Council says it had not given the company a revenue grant for this year but had provided a small budget towards administration. Last year, the company received £150,000.

Nobody from Amharclann de h═de could speak to Front Row, due to holidays, but the board's secretary, Deirdre Davitt, recently spoke to the weekly newspaper Foinse. She said it was not the end for the company but an opportunity to review all that had been achieved over the past 10 years.

After the last artistic director, Br∅d ╙ Gallcho∅r, left - she is now working with the Belfast-based Aisling GhΘar - a decision was made to review progress and look ahead. Such a review was necessary in any company's life, she said, in order to assess opportunities.

She stressed the contribution Amharclann de h═de had made in training actors in Irish before the advent of TG4. She also emphasised that it had commissioned work for the stage. The company had produced only one translation, she said; the rest had been original work. The review would canvass the views of dramatists, actors and producers who had contributed to the theatre.

While the capital will now be without professional drama in Irish, Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe and Aisling GhΘar will continue to produce plays.

frontrow@irish-times.ie