I spent ages researching this for an assignment and it's so embedded in my mind that I'm having to remind myself that most people don't know about it https://twitter.com/DirkVanBryn/status/1263488536755478529

If anyone is interested - the theatre was originally a cinema for news etc that people could watch while waiting for their buses.
Bus áras was designed with a creche, barbers and club in it as well.

Gemini Theatre Company has its home in the Eblana (bus áras theatre's name)from. 1958, and were producing new theatre at a time when The Abbey wasn't and before Project Arts Center opened.

Because it was designed as a cinema and right beside the toilets, confused people needing to pee used to wander into performances, and actors had to cling to the sides of the walls because the were no wings they could stand in between entering and exiting

"performances were occasionally enlivened by lost passengers seeking the lavatories" - Phyliss Ryan, director of Gemini.

I love how in Edinburgh every space becomes a venue and there's a vibrant atmosphere. In Dublin, the Eblana closed in the 90s, the focus and Andrews lane, theatre upstairs have all closed, the Tivoli knocked down and there's a venue crisis.

Off Thomas Street, the 600 seater Guinness theatre doesn't get used, but used to be a venue for guiness workers film club & choir as well as having been used by The Abbey after its fire in the 50s.
It was also built with level oak floors so it could be a dance hall

The Eblana & Rupert Guinness theatre I find interesting in particular because we talk so much about arts accessibility, and I think ensuring that arts venues are at the heart of civic buildings like bus áras that could of had lots of facilities and a bit of a community

And Rupert Guinness theatre that could facilitate guiness workers socials - but also if it got used by local community around the liberties too, would mean that you're removing part of the barriers around accessibility

When I see venues closing, reports such as the Gaurdians article that theatre in the UK could collapse without sufficient state help as long as social distancing is necessary, and how the arts are treated in Ireland, its a point of anger that these theatres shut down

These places aren't just nice things to have. The arts are part of human existence and theatres are workplaces - without them and sufficient state funding, there will be less jobs in the sector