The crisis at the Abbey Theatre looks set to grow this week after a motion was put forward at an extraordinary general meeting of the National Theatre Society on Saturday calling for the theatre's board of directors to dismiss the artistic director, Mr Ben Barnes.
However, with Mr Barnes still in Australia, where he is touring with an Abbey production of The Gigli Concert, it was decided to adjourn the e.g.m. until tomorrow evening.
He had not planned to return from Australia until a later date but will now fly back to Dublin today to address the board and shareholders at tomorrow's 7 p.m. meeting.
The motion calling for Mr Barnes's dismissal was put forward by the playwright Jimmy Murphy and seconded by the writer Ulick O'Connor. Both are among the 21 shareholding council members of the National Theatre Society.
The theatre, which is this year celebrating its centenary, announced last week that it intends to shed one-third of its staff.
Its financial shortfall is expected to reach €2.51 million by the end of the year.
Box office receipts for Mr Barnes's centenary programme, it was revealed on Saturday, have averaged just 41 per cent of capacity.
Only one production, a revival of the 19th century melodrama The Shaughraun, exceeded the hoped for average of 50 per cent; it has recorded 67 per cent of capacity.
Two of the programme's most-heralded productions, Tom Murphy's version of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Seamus Heaney's Burial at Thebes, a translation of Sophocles' Antigone, did box-office business of just 28 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.
According to sources, there was "very little resistance" by the theatre's board to the tabling of the motion calling for Mr Barnes's dismissal.
Present on Saturday were the chairwoman of the board, Ms Eithne Healy, as well as board members including Mr Eugene Downes, Ms Pauline Morrison, and Mr John McColgan, who is also chairman of the fundraising committee established to support the Abbey's centenary programme.
The executive was represented by managing director, Mr Brian Jackson.
Most of the 21 shareholding council members were also present.
The e.g.m was preceded by the annual general meeting of the society, at which its audited accounts for 2003 were considered, revealing an end-of-year deficit of €1.53 million.
This incorporated a shortfall of some €800,000 carried over from 2002.
Also discussed at the a.g.m. were the job cuts announced by Mr Jackson on Thursday.
Giving an idea of how the resultant restructuring operation would shape the output of the theatre, he indicated that 2005 may see just six productions on the Abbey stage, and three in its basement theatre, the Peacock, which would remain dark between productions.
The position of director of the Peacock, currently held by Ms Ali Curran, is among those expected to be dissolved.
In the absence of a presentation on the artistic and programming aspects of the contract terminations and redundancies, full discussion of the restructuring plan was deemed impossible by the shareholders.
Speaking to The Irish Times afterwards, Mr Jackson said the decision to adjourn proceedings to tomorrow centred on the need to look at artistic and programming issues.
"The meeting was cordial and constructive and not in any way hostile."
However, other participants described the atmosphere as "wild" and "livid", with shareholders "blind with rage" at the absence of Mr Barnes.
It is understood that there was heavy criticism of the quality of Mr Barnes' centenary programme, which, it was argued, had failed to catch the imagination of theatre-goers.
The board of directors reasserted its principle of distance from the task of programming, stating that it could not intervene in the decisions of the artistic director.
Mr Barnes, who became artistic director in January 2000, recently confirmed that he will not be seeking a renewal of his contract when it expires in December 2005.
He has indicated that he may move to Canada, where he has theatrical interests. A committee for the selection of his successor is already in place.