Curtain comes down on Corcadorca's final act

Eileen Walsh and Cillian Murphy in Disco Pigs.

It was the theatre company that launched the stellar careers of the likes of Cillian Murphy and Enda Walsh, but after 31 years, Corcadorca is bringing the curtain down on its final act.

Based in recent years at Triskel in Cork, a statement from the company's management on Tuesday revealed they would not apply for Arts Council funding and would wind down the highly-regarded company. 

The closure will be regarded as a loss to the Irish arts world, particularly for Cork, where Corcadorca has been the largest and most prolific producer of quality theatre for many years.

After establishing its reputation with Disco Pigs in 1996, Corcadorca had become renowned for site-specific productions, with plays performed in factories, harbour islands, and even Cork City’s courthouse. 

As well as film star Murphy, and renowned playwright Walsh, the company also provided an outlet for major talents such as Ruth Negga, Eileen Walsh, and many other actors and technical staff who worked on its productions through the decades.

The company’s Theatre Development Centre at Triskel has also been instrumental in fostering local talent in Cork.

Kathie Richardson in a Corcadorca's Where is the Horse? — part of Cork Midsummer Festival 2021. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

Announcing the closure, founder and artistic director Pat Kiernan said: “Collaborating with both emerging and established talent, we made outstanding work with Corcadorca and the Theatre Development Centre. I’m particularly proud that we were part of the cultural fabric of the city.” 

It is understood that Kiernan will continue working in the world of theatre. Corcadorca’s other stalwart of recent decades, company manager Fin Flynn, had moved to Cork Arts Theatre in 2020.

A source close to the company indicated there wasn’t any one reason for the decision to shut down, but the annual grind of trying to source funding, and pulling together all the logistical and administrative strands to put on its productions, had taken their toll. 

There has been an increase in budget allocations to the arts in recent years, but the Covid era has seen many people leave the sector in search of more secure employment than the gig economy could offer.

Cillian Murphy, Pat Kiernan and Fin O'Flynn in Cork in 2005. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

Among those paying tribute to Corcadorca was writer Kevin Barry, who had seen its early productions while living in Cork in the 1990s, and had gone on to collaborate with the company on an adaptation of Guests Of The Nation for Cork Midsummer Festival 2022.

"I think the message being transmitted by the company in the early and mid ‘90s was that you didn't need to be in London or New York to produce world-class work, and you certainly didn't need to be in Dublin,” said Barry. 

You could do it from a small wet southern city and it was actually the very local textures and voices that could lift and distinguish the work. I think this was important for lots of people with creative ambitions in the city, and not just in theatre."

Mary McCarthy, director of the Crawford Art Gallery, also heaped praise on the company. McCarthy headed Cork’s tenure as European City of Culture in 2005, of which Corcadorca was a key part.

"Corcadorca defined site-specific theatre for a generation of us. Their productions were something that were highly anticipated. They defined how we saw and will continue to see Cork, as place, both its urban and natural spaces,” she said.

“The landscape of theatre and theatre-making is an ever-shifting proposition, and I look forward to seeing what Pat Kiernan as artistic director does next. I have my own Corcadorca map of Cork, thanks to this amazing company. That map continues to inspire me.”