Grant Boost Continues Lyrical Success

The pioneering Belfast theatre that began life in a south Belfast back room is to have a new lease of life.

The venue that presented on stage everything from the tragedy of Macbeth to the living tragedy of the malevolent violence that was so much a part of Belfast for 30 years - almost from the birth of the theatre to the end of the millennium – looks set to live on.

Continuing uncertainty over the future of the Lyric theatre looks to ease with news that the rebuilding project is in line for a grant of more than £1m from Belfast City Council.

A £3m fund for cultural development is to grant the project £1,250,000 – and while it has yet to be agreed by the full council – it has already been voted through by a committee.

The old building is due to close early next month for the £17m redevelopment, but before construction begins, 95% of the cost has to have been raised.

Therefore, if this grant is approved at next month's meeting, the project can go ahead.

Last month the theatre was given £250,000 by the Foundation for Sport and the Arts and in June, a private donor pledged £1m on top of the funding already promised by government departments.

It is understood theatre management was worried that if the scheme is delayed, costs could spiral, holding up the whole process.

The new Lyric is to be built on the site of the current theatre on the banks of the River Lagan.

The Lyric has 'made' some major names in its 50-year history, including some who now seek to give something back. Hollywood film star, Ballymena-born Liam Neeson has consistently promoted Belfast's Lyric Theatre.

Speaking at a fund-raising New York dinner three years ago, the actor said that the theatre on Ridgeway Street was then in a "very dilapidated condition".

The Oscar-nominated actor, whose films include Schindler's List, Michael Collins and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, said: "The Lyric is too important to the cultural and social life of Northern Ireland for this building to crumble and fall apart.

"It gave me a start professionally. Mary O'Malley, the founder of the theatre, gave me my future.

"In those days, in the mid-70s, when I was there, we were doing a play every four weeks.

"Belfast was not a pretty town to be living in," he said.

"There was serious trouble, as you know, but this theatre was like a Belisha beacon of light and hope six nights a week, doing everything from Shakespeare to Yeats to O'Casey with a group of actors and actresses that affected me very deeply and still do."

The Lyric began over 50 years ago but the doors opened at its present site on the Stranmillis embankment overlooking the River Lagan in 1968.

As well as Liam Neeson, it also launched the careers of Adrian Dunbar and Stephen Rea and playwrights such as Martin Lynch.

The last public performance in the current Lyric theatre will take place on Sunday 13 January, but that's far from being the final curtain.

In May 2008, it will produce a major project showcasing one of Belfast’s best-known playwrights in a two-play retrospective as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.

In September, it will present the Irish premiere of a new play by a Northern Ireland writer – this play which is set in the borderlands of Armagh will tour to Strabane, Letterkenny, Enniskillen, Sligo, Armagh, Cookstown and Omagh after the Belfast run.

In October, the Lyric will produce a highly unusual world premiere play in a site specific location during Belfast Festival.

November will see the Lyric presenting a play which will tour around Belfast to various community centres and halls and in January 2009 we are working with Brian Friel towards a production which will open in Donegal and transfer to the Grand Opera House.

(BMcC)