Photography: Ros Kavanagh
Sinéad Wallace works as a lighting designer for theatre, opera and dance throughout Ireland. She received Irish Times Theatre Awards for Best Lighting three times between 2007 and 2010. Sinéad's recent lighting designs include Tartuffe, iGirl (Abbey Theatre), The Lighthouse, Least Like The Other (Irish National Opera) and In Middletown (Gate Theatre). She has worked extensively for the Abbey Theatre, Corn Exchange and Irish National Opera, as well as for the Gate Theatre, Liz Roche Company and The Emergency Room. Sinéad is resident Lighting Designer at the Lir Academy leading the Lighting Design module on the MFA Stage Design.
Sinéad Wallace
When I think of The Next Four Years I struggle to see beyond our current stasis.
Our post-pandemic hope of doing things differently has faded.
The future does not look so bright.
2030 does not look so far away.
The climate is breaking down.
The house is on fire.
The theatre is on fire.
But here we are. Getting on with getting on.
Heads in the sand.
Mr Sands, our code for fire. A call to action to the staff to get the people out.
Yet still we work to get the people in. We tell the same stories of the past.
Where is the lesson for the future?
I see a change coming.
[in the optimistic moments]
I see a world willing to change.
I see the theatre of the future.
What do you love?
How will climate breakdown affect what you love?
Here is what I love.
All together.
In one room.
Sinking underwater.
The Next Four Years.
It is time to start.
To start to fix how we do what we do.
To make work better.
To make better work.
To speak about the future so it might not be so uncertain when we get there.
When we get there.
