Cork theatre SHOWs its stuff

FUNDING for the arts may be thin on the ground but there seems to be no end to the amount of theatre companies springing up in Cork, often working without anything approaching a budget or, if they’re lucky, getting one-off funding for projects.

The work of several theatre practitioners in Cork will be showcased at the TDC (Theatre Development Centre) at Triskel Christchurch under the SHOW initiative, now in its second year. This week-long mini-festival of new work invites the public as well as venue managers, festival curators and the Arts Council to see what is happening in theatre in the Cork region. The ultimate aim is that the work will be picked up on and produced for as wide an audience as possible.

Pat Kiernan, artistic director of Corcadorca, which established the TDC to incubate new work, says there are two strands to SHOW – finished work and works-in-progress. Finished work will be presented by Outset Ensemble, Broken Crow, Just Make It Productions and Dominic Moore (with the support of Corcadorca). Works-in-progress will be presented by Conflicted Theatre, Painted Bird, Broken Crow, Expecto Theatre, Ruth Hayes, Ita Morrissey, Richie Clare and Laura O’Mahony.