Calling on the National Theatre of Ireland; The Abbey Theatre, The Gate, The Gaiety Theatre and Bord Gais Theatre. Will the theatre and company management of all these iconic and great venues please consider the idea of a midweek matinee at least once during the run of each production hosted or produced at each theatre.

Saturday matinees are already a regular part of scheduling but Saturday is not always a possibility for many people to travel to Dublin. There is a proven market for midweek matinees; Look at major centres of theatre and drama such as London, where mid-week matinees sell very well due to a proven market.

Midweek matinees will give Theatre goers from outside Dublin a greater opportunity to access the music and drama output from the Dublin Theatres. The cost of hotels in Dublin has made visiting Dublin to attend the theatre a prohibitively expensive excursion. A matinee makes a theatre trip to Dublin accessible to those who simply cannot afford to stay overnight, Dublin hotels are now just too expensive to justify a trip to the theatre from outside Dublin.

People work in different ways now; they have variant work patterns that don’t conveniently place them in Dublin City Centre in the early evening; so please we call on the management at the Abbey, The Gate, The Gaiety and Bord Gais theatre talk to each other about scheduling a mid-week matinee on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, on at least one day of each production run at the theatre.  There is a limited theatre going public, so work together to avoid mid-week matinees clashing on the same day.  Mid week matinees will work and you will put bums on seats!

By copy to Minister of Arts Culture and Heritage, Catherine Martin. Minister will you please take up the rein for those that want matinees mid-week and ask those theatres you support with Arts Council funding to take note!

Thank you.