For lovers of the stage, the sight has been dismal. The past year brought unprecedented hardship to the world of theatre as Covid-19 forced playhouses to close and cancel one production after another, with dire consequences for all involved. Itâs no surprise, however, that theatremakers have bounced back with wonderful ingenuity, creating socially-distanced productions and livestreaming events, even as financial strictures only increased. The Dublin Theatre Festival, for example, went to great lengths to reinvent itself when the second wave of the pandemic hit and managed to salvage part of its line-up in inventive ways. They have since set up a Futures programme that enables artists to rethink the precarious âperforming arts ecologyâ, with 13 productions due in the spring of 2021.