Take a bow: Abbey Theatre back in profit with record performances
THE Abbey Theatre returned to profit last year – boosted by popular works by Enda Walsh, Druid and Rough Magic.
Accounts show the theatre recorded a profit of €40,556 after a loss of €508,680 in 2016 – a positive swing of €549,236.
The 112,259 who attended performances was the highest seen at the theatre since 2010.
Its return to profit came in spite of the Abbey’s income falling 13pc from €12.3m to €10.7m.
A record number of 48 unique and wide-ranging presentations were staged in 2017, more than twice the number of 2016.
Output last year also involved touring Roddy Doyle’s ‘Two Pints’ to 25 pubs across the island.
The directors of the Abbey state that 2017 was “in many ways a revolutionary year for the Abbey Theatre” and the year was the first of programming by the new joint CEOs, Neil Murray and Graham McLaren.
The two were each paid €107,838, including pension payments of €7,988, for 2017 resulting in an overall cost of €215,676 for the two.
The greatest bulk of the Abbey’s income last year came from the Arts Council through a grant of €6.17m and the total Arts Council grant in 2018 amounts to €7m. Box office income rose from €2.4m to €2.5m with €393,299 raised by ‘bar and merchandising’.
Numbers employed last year totalled 126 with a pay-bill of €5m.