From the stage of the Tidewater Theatre, the 412 newly upholstered seats rise in a steep curve towards the lighting box. They were empty for most of the summer while the auditorium was refitted. This week they fill again, for a season the company describes as its boldest in a decade: four plays, none of which has been performed anywhere before.
The season opens with The Salt Ledger, a family drama set in a Saltings boatyard over a single storm-bound night. It is followed by Northfield Line, a comedy about strangers who share the same tram carriage every morning for a year, and A House for Gulls, a two-hander about a retired lighthouse keeper and the student sent to record his memories. The season closes with Low Water, a commission from a writer in residence at the University of Wrenhaven.
Writers from down the road
Fergus Lindley, the company's artistic director, said the decision to stage only new work had been a financial risk. "Familiar titles sell themselves," he said. "New plays need the audience to trust you. We think this city has earned stories about itself, and we would rather take the risk than play safe for another year."
To lower the barrier, the first three performances of each play are pay-what-you-can, with a suggested price of €5. Tickets for under-26s are €10 throughout the run, and every production has one captioned and one relaxed performance.
I wrote most of the second act on the Line 2 tram, so it felt only fair to set the play there.
Bea Lawson, the author of Northfield Line, said she had spent months listening to fellow commuters before writing a word. Her play is her first full-length piece for the stage after several years of short work for the company's young writers' programme.
The refit, which cost €1.3m, also widened the aisles, added four wheelchair spaces in the stalls and replaced a heating system that, according to front-of-house staff, had two settings: arctic and tropical. The company kept the original timber stage, which dates from the theatre's opening and has been sanded back and resealed.
Advance bookings for the season stood at about 7,800 seats by the end of last week, roughly a fifth higher than at the same point a year ago, according to the box office.