With over 17 years existence, 30 productions to their name, a long and distinguished list of awards and a glowing reputation that extends beyond the Irish shores out across Europe, Corcadorca's importance to both the local and national theatrical scene cannot be overestimated.

The company, which formed in 1991, has become something of an established institution here in Cork, but one which is thankfully bereft of the usual trappings which are associated with many aging establishments ie stagnant creativity and artistic dead-ends born as a result of an over-reliance on utilising the tried and tested formulas over exploring newer avenues.

Both Corcadorca's sterling reputation and its deserved success have come about as a result of its work ethic and willingness to experiment with the very notion of what constitutes 'theatre'. From classic texts to works by new emerging talents the company have been responsible for some of the most forward thinking and carefully executed productions that this country has ever seen.

In truth it's success and reputation is built as much outside theatre circles as it is within. Their willingness to take theatre to the people in a variety of different locations (Fitzgerald's Park, Patrick's Hill, the original Ford factory, Sir Henry's nightclub and Cork city's Courthouse, to name but a few), rather then wait for the people to come to the theatre has helped make theatre production more accessible as an art-form. They've shown as much when they entertained 2,500 in one night for The Trial of Jesus and performed to over 6,000 for the run of The Tempest.

This month has seen Corcadorca return from the wilderness to stage their first indoor show for many a year with Kilkenny based playwright Ger Bourke's Last Beauty Spot, a tale of our slowly changing homeland, and one that seems perfectly suited to the Corcadorca touch, as Artistic Director Pat Kiernan explained.

"Last Beauty Spot is set at an imagined tourist attraction that has faded and lost its appeal and beauty because of development. There are four characters in the play, a couple who own a chip van which was dependent on the passing tourist trade and a pair of drift net fishermen, who can no longer fish the bay because of the buy out of the drift net fisherman.

"So all characters are dealing with enormous change and they represent to me the difficulty, which some people have found with the recent changes to Ireland. What makes this play attractive to me as a director is that it is speaking about right now and is extremely relevant. Also the play is not a naturalistic representation of this world but quite fantastical."

The production, says Pat, is designed for the intimacy of the Cork Arts Theatre, heralding a return to the more 'personal' theatre such as Disco Pigs which first brought Corcadorca to national prominence. "When I received the script initially, all I knew was I wanted to produce it. Then I decided it would work best in a theatre, as it is the language that is the most important thing in the play. Often our outdoor work is image driven. When choosing a theatre, the Cork Arts Theatre was the right space in which to stage an intimate production. As a space, it reminds me of the famous Bush Theatre in London.

"Ger is a very distinctive writer, whose language is magical, and whose concerns are hugely interesting to me. I also enjoy seeing the development of his work, and when I read Last Beauty Spot, I saw what I thought was his best play yet. If I am to do a new play, I love the idea of it being relevant and having an opinion in it, and that its not formulaic, in the way many of the plays submitted to Corcadorca are.

Corcadorca's return to the more traditional theatre space of the Cork Arts Theatre, while not carrying the same burdens of their more elaborate outdoor productions, has its own distinct trap-falls, says Pat and has required a different process from which they have been accustomed to in recent years.