The Abbey offers the best theatre in the world says Gemma Hussey

Tis month Senator Gemma Hussey will have come to the end of her four year term as Director of the Abbey Theatre. She was appointed in July 1974 by Ritchie Ryan. This was a direct result of her involvement with the National Women's Talent Bank and her active campaign to have more women on State Boards and Commissions. She has, for many years, been in the forefront of the women's movement. In February of this year she had a stormy confrontation with George Colley on the issue of married women's taxation. Ironically it is George CoUey who will decide whether or not she serves a second term on the Abbey Board.

A FAVOURITE JOKE often repeated by Dubliners about the Abbey Theatre Board was that the average age of its members was seventy-five and, indeed, the continued presence of such very senior citizens as Ernest Blythe and Gabriel Fallon gave a certain ring of truth to the story. The Board was connsidered to be conservative to a degree, and the theatre-going public were treated to a fairly unadulterated diet of the Irish Classics with monotonous regularity.

Recent years, however, have seen a welcome injection of younger, newer blood into both Management and

Board. Could we be about to see the dawn of a new era in the history of the Abbey? What are the problems to be faced in running a National Theatre? What is the role of the Board in deetermining the policy of such a theatre, heavily subsidised by the taxpayers' money? Senator Hussey gives her views. With the exception of Charles McCarthy she is the only member of the Board not involved with the theatre or the arts in any way.

"I have always seen my role as one of representing the general public. Acting as an interpreter, if you like, of what they want in as informed a way as I possibly can."

In 1976 the Abbey was put under the Arts Council; a logical step in that subsidies for the Arts all came under the one administration, but the Minister for Finance does have a representative among the shareholders who preesumably keeps him informed of the financial situation. Shareholders attend 4 extraordinary general meetings annually.

The Board meets once a month.

The last meeting went on for four hours which is not, apparently, untypical. "We have a remarkably good attendance at meetings but we should not have to meet so often. I feel that with the young, dynamic management we have now, it should not be necessary. We should not have to be involved in petty decisions and we would do much better to keep out of the hair of the management and let them get on with their job without our interference. The Board is too small. We should ennlarge it, hopefully with young people and I would like to see a system of rotating the chairmanship among nonnstaff members of the Board." Micheal o hAodha has been chairman since 1971.

The function of the Board is as she sees it, to approve or alter both the budget plan presented by the Manager and the policy plan prepared by the artistic director. The Abbey has suffered in the past, she feels, from the lack of long term planning. In an effort to put this right the Board has recently agreed to a policy which will result in a fairly demandmg programme. The aim of the artistic director is to put on annually two new Irish plays, one contemporary English language play, and one classic English language play which would innclude Shakespeare.

"Out of these the most difficult to achieve will be the two new plays ?y I.rish writers. Catappletits will get Its first production later this year and there will be a revival of Hatchets but we still do not get enough good stuff from Irish writers. They are the life blood of the theatre and, without them, the Abbey simply becomes a museum. The artistic director would like to see the Peacock becoming the home of new writing which might not necessarily be good box office material. We. would like to see plays wntten m Insh, too. But if the Govvernment wishes to encourage this then they must give a special subvention for It because audiences will not generally come to performances in Irish." Further plans for the Autumn include Hideo Kanze (designated a National Treasure by his country of Japan) directing two Noh plays by Yeats. This is being ~unded by the Japanese Foundation and IS a great, if esoteric, honour for Dublin. There will also be a production of Uncle Vanya, with a director from the Mali Theatre, Moscow.

The newly appointed artistic director, Joe Dowling, is 29. Tomas MacAnna, whose current period as artistic director ended last March coinciding with the ending of the 3 years on the Board, stood unopposed at the A.G.M. and is once more a member of the Board elected by the shareholders and directors. As he is also a full-time member of the staff as play director, one wonders will it not be difficult for Joe Dowling, his subordinate for many years, to have such a powerful presence on the Board? Senator Hussey considers the question carefully: "I quite agree that this may be a delicate situation. I can only say that because we are aware of it the Board will be at pains to ensure that the new artistic director has our full support."

As Senator Hussey rightly says the State's involvement can only r~allY be measured by the amount of money it gives to the Abbey. The grant at present, is half a million pounds; 'not enough to keep two theatres open for twelve months of the year and to pay the salaries of the players and staff "We have only 36 players in th~ company which is far too few, and means we have to have a lot of guest players. Because of the financial 'reestraints we are also short of adminiistrative staff and nobody is paid enough m.oney. Compared with a country like Fmland, ours is a small subvention. There, cities the size of Cork and Gallway would also have National Theatres. Nobody travels because we have no money. I would like to see a situation w.here some of our players, our play director and our artistic director would be able to exchange with other countries and work there for a time. We cannot afford enough guest directors either." She would like to see a subbvention for writers' workshops and bursaries being made available for young playwrights.

Given the system of reading new plays at present, Senator Hussey is adamant that no writer of talent should be missed. A new play will be sent out to a group of readers. If only one of them considers it worthwhile it will then be read by members· of the Board Since last Christmas 80 new plays have been submitted.

She admits that, before joining the Board, the image she had of the Abbey was of an august and slightly moribund institution, rather overwhelmed by its status. But in the last couple of years she believes it has offered playgoers the best theatre in Dublin. She reegarded ~a:bot's Box by Tom Kilroy as a significant production, also Sancctuary Lamp - "a superb exploration of religious beliefs" - and Morning After Optimism, both by Tom Murphy. We have seen, she thinks, excellent Shakespeare and memorable productions in the Peacock like A Short Walk to the Sea and Maeve Binchy's End of Term. Her own choice for International Women's Year - Ibsen's D.oll's House packed the Peacock nightly for six weeks.

Senator Hussey would like to see the Abbey use its resources in a more adventurous manner and with a greater North of Ireland dimension. "But there is always the conflict between giving the public what it wants to see and what we think it should see. i would like to see the two theatres being used all day with lunchtime performances, art exhibitions, jazz conncerts. They should be a centre for the arts, given the location, right in the centre of the city."

Looking back on her four years' mvolvement, she has derived the most satisfaction from the creation of the Team Education Theatre. "Joe Dowling Kathleen Barrington and I hav~ managed to get this going in an effort ~o encourage involvement by children III the theatre. We have five young actors going round in a van to schools devising and doing their own work' In the. beginning we got £3,000 fro~ the Insh Banks Standing Committee Now the project is successful and w~ have a small grant from the Arts Council and from Dublin Corporation."

She admits that the National Theatre IS a natural target for actors who feel badly done by, or playwrights whose work has been rejected. "But given our low subvention it does, on the whole do good work" Seat occupancy now average over 65% in the Abbey and is even higher in the Peacock but this covers only one quarter of the yearly expenditure. "I feel that with a young team at the top there will be a new surge forward. So much depends on the excellence of the artistic director. I would very much like to be reeappointed to the Board. I have learnt sufficient during the past 4 years to make me feel I have a definite conntribution to make.". .

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The Abbey board

DIRECTORS

Micheal 0 hAodha - Chair man , Assistant Controller of Programmes, RTE

Tomas MacAnna - Play Director, Abbey Theatre

Charles McCarthy - Industrial Relations Expert and Lecturer in TCD

Bill Foley - Actor, Abbey Theatre Gabrielle Wilson - Representative from Staff Council, Abbey Theatre Gemma Hussey - Independent Senator, NUJ

Thomas Murphy - Playwright

Joe Dowling - Artistic Director Martin Fahy - Manager and Secretary to the Board