A theatre hub for the south east has been set up by former artistic director of the Theatre Royal in Waterford, Ben Barnes.
He has set up Four Rivers - a new theatre company dedicated to serving audiences and artists in the South East region.
The former Artistic Director of the Abbey says the Arts Council should support professional productions around the country and says these productions need to travel to be viable.
"I think any one place is too small for a theatre company. If I was only performing Blackbird in Waterford I could probably do two or three performances and that's really not enough to justify the expenditure on a full production, so this is really a theatre hub for the south east."
He says they're hoping to build their following in the region;
"Our first priority is the south east but we're hoping to build up a following for the company with audiences in the south east but also to use artists who have a base in the south east or who have links to the south east.
So, most of our creative team on this production for instance are all Waterford based or regional based people."
