New Lyric Will Breed New Life In Belfast Theatre
Theatre in Belfast is embarking onto a new era. Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney last week unveiled a Threshold Stone to symbolise the beginning of construction of new home the Lyric Theatre’s on Ridgeway Street.
This building is the second Lyric on the same site. The first one was built in the 60s, at the cost of £80,000.
The new theatre, at a budget of £17.85m, will be ready for opening in 2011 and even if construction is now underway, there’s still an additional £800,000 to be raised to finish the building.
Before the original Lyric was constructed its founders, Mary and Pearse O’Malley who were huge fans of W.B.Yeats, used to stage plays in their home on the Lisburn Road.
In 1952 the couple bought a larger house on Derryvolgie Avenue and a small auditorium capable of seating 50 spectators was built from the stables in the rear of the property.
At that time, Mr Heaney was a regular at the Derryvolgie house as junior member of a tribe of up and coming poets.
Mt Heaney said that it used to be a small and intimate place. He added that it was the kind of theatre that Yeats wanted.
He claimed that theatre may not be capable to prevent society’s malign development, but it resolutely works against them.
Upon the construction of the original Lyric In 1965, Mr Heaney had taken the opportunity to recite a new piece, Peter Street at Bankside, a poem specially penned for when the foundation stone was to be laid. A stanza from this work has been engraved in the Threshold Stone, which will decorate the entrance to the new theatre.
Nelson McCausland, claimed the Ministry for the Arts had contributed more than £9m for the new theatre.
He said that this will take part to a cultural renaissance.