The Arts Council has announced that it is to commission an independent review of the Abbey Theatre.
The decision was made at Monday's plenary meeting of the council, during which the problems presently faced by the theatre, including falling box-office revenues and a predicted end-of-year deficit of €2.51 million, were discussed.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Arts Council said it was "deeply concerned" about the Abbey's current difficulties and wished to offer its support through an independent review intended to inform its response to the Abbey's proposals for change.
The review will begin in October, after the Abbey's internal working party has completed its discussion of the restructuring plan. Speaking yesterday to The Irish Times, the chairwoman of the Arts Council, Ms Olive Braiden, said that, although the work of the council's review might overlap at some points with the Abbey's internal working party, the council's consultant would "have a different hat on".
The aspects examined by the council would be different from those focused on by the Abbey's working group. She indicated that the council would commission an individual with artistic expertise, "probably from abroad", to carry out the review.
Asked about the need for a second review, Ms Braiden said the council needed to be "doubly assured" that the Abbey's plans for restructuring would fit in with the council's responsibilities as the theatre's main funder, as well as that the Abbey's plans were workable.
In 2004 the National Theatre Society, which runs the Abbey, received revenue funding of €4.55 million from the Arts Council.
Although the Abbey had always had difficulties "and never got the funding that a national theatre deserves," Ms Braiden said, it was vital that it had an artistic policy that fits a national theatre.
Ms Braiden said the council had every confidence in the board of the Abbey and felt sure that the theatre's board had told it "the full story" about its recent difficulties.
On Monday the board held an emergency meeting to discuss an e-mail criticising its decisions that was sent to arts figures worldwide by the theatre's artistic director, Mr Ben Barnes. At the meeting, Mr Barnes apologised for his comments.
The chairwoman of the board of the Abbey, Ms Eithne Healy, welcomed the council's decision and expressed appreciation for its support.
Meanwhile, the theatre yesterday named the 12 members of the working group established last week at its extraordinary general meeting to consult over a four-week period on the restructuring plan.
The group will be chaired by Mr Des Geraghty, a former SIPTU president and member of the Abbey's shareholding advisory council. The other representative of the advisory council will be the playwright, Jimmy Murphy. Representing the board of directors will be Mr Eugene Downs, an arts consultant and chairman of the board's finance committee, and Niall O'Brien, an actor. Abbey staff will be represented by Mr Peter Rose, Mr Michael Loughnane and Ms Andrea Ainsworth, while the union representatives will be Ms Jane Bushell and Mr John Stapleton. Two representatives of the freelance artistic community, the writer and director Conall Morrison and the actor Derbhle Crotty, will also join the group. It will be assisted by the managing director of the Abbey, Mr Brian Jackson, as well as by Mr Barnes.