Sir, - The views expressed by various stage designers and architects on the proposed renovation of the Abbey Theatre in your Arts page (July 19th) were notable for two main reasons. They would all appear to have been held by Dublin-based people and none would seem to have any difficulty with the £50 million price tag currently associated with this project in the national press.
As an architect who has relatively recently designed both the proscenium arch-style Town Hall Theatre and flexible Black Box Theatre for Galway Corporation for a combined cost of less than £4 million, I would like to introduce a note of sanity to your debate. No sum of money, however extravagant, will address the perceived limitations of the Abbey Theatre unless a cost benefit analysis is firstly undertaken to clarify the exact scope in theatrical as well as building terms on any proposed project and the funding level which is then deemed appropriate to achieving these objectives.
In such an exercise, the views should be sought of many local authority and community groups, as well as theatre and design specialists, with a personal involvement with the arts at all levels in the country. They could no doubt testify to the protracted nature of obtaining funding of any kind from central government departments for local arts initiatives. Only then should the pipe dreams of Dublin's supposed intelligentia in relation to the perceived cultural and historic presence of the existing Abbey Street theatre be given any real credence.
In this respect, may I remind your "national" newspaper which claims to address provincial concerns to a large degree, that the intended focus of a national theatre lies outside that normally associated in the public mind with a Dublin 4 readership.
For my own part I would humbly suggest one option which might be worthy of further consideration. Relocate the Abbey Theatre to the Spencer Dock site where it could presumably enjoy a greater flexibility in space management, share some facilities with the proposed new National Convention Centre and could at the same time contribute to a reduced scale of building in the process which could please developers and local residents alike. - Yours, etc.,
Colm O'Riain, Architect Town Planner, Flood Street, Galway.