Eblana Theatre, Underground theatre at Busáras central station, Dublin, Ireland.
Eblana Theatre is a former performance space in the basement of Busáras, Dublin's central bus station in Ireland. The hall held around 225 seats and lacked standard stage features such as wings, which shaped how productions were mounted.
The theatre opened in 1959 during Dublin's first Theatre Festival and ran until 1995. After closing, the space was left largely untouched, keeping the look it had during its years of operation.
The theatre became a space where Irish playwrights could see their work performed in front of a Dublin audience for the first time. The director Phyllis Ryan shaped much of what happened on that stage over the decades.
The entrance is in the lower level of Busáras bus station, so it helps to ask for directions before heading down. Since the space is no longer in regular use, it is worth checking in advance whether access is possible.
Before it became a theatre, the space was used as a newsreel cinema, showing short news films to the public. That original layout, with no room for standard stage machinery, forced directors to find creative ways to work within its limits.
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