This is all the more true given the circumstances of 1992, when the company was founded. Just ten years before, in the early 1980s, the independent theatre sector itself was still being literally pioneered in this society; after the dark days of the earlier Troubles, when for a stretch only one full-time professional producing theatre had remained open, the art form was moving from simple survival through to welcome re-emergence and consolidation. Even then, however, the very idea propounded by such leading pioneers as Field Day and Charabanc of independent theatre as a viable, professional entity achieving far more than basic survival was initially viewed as daring, almost foolhardy. Nonetheless, perseverance and painstaking efforts would eventually prove the point, and by the early 1990s, a theatrical 'scene' of sorts had begun to emerge. With much excitement tempered by real worries regarding sustainability and funding, a comparative flurry of new works and new companies resulted; to this, Prime Cut would bring a unique and very vital voice.

The company was born of a society which has been characterised by its "chronic introspection". As Dr. Eamonn Hughes has noted, the Troubles have "not unnaturally dominated our thinking… In consequence, a self-consciousness, even narcissism has affected us; wherever we look we see ourselves". Such introspection has been seen as a "hallmark of life in Northern Ireland"; one result of this has been that for much of the past 30 years, theatre as much else has been viewed through the prism of the Troubles. If writers have, as Michael Longley has recorded, been sometimes accused of exploitation if they took the Troubles as their subject, and evasion if they did not, so too with companies, who have been both praised and criticised for either reflecting or rejecting the civil strife in their work. Seamus Heaney's description of poetry's problematic "search for images and symbols adequate to our predicament" has, then, been no less applicable to theatre; this most public of the art forms has variously responded to the challenge.

For some companies, the way forward has been an emphasis on new writing, its relevance to the situation about it immediately evident. For others, it has been to present overtly experimental work, sometimes less obviously related to the socio-political world about it. Still others have sought to create work which is unapologetically escapist, often at the behest of audiences seeking "a welcome break". Yet there has been another way still, one described by Fortnight journal speaking of Prime Cut, namely "the power of good theatre always to be in two places at once without false localisms - its own home ground and in this case, a timely post-ceasefire Ireland". It is this modus operandi which Prime Cut has sought to make its own.

In so doing, the company has not been alone. It has, however, over ten years shown itself the most skilled and sustained current exponent of this way of working through a range of plays which have cumulatively displayed an unostentatious and quietly confident artistic vision. Whether set in France, Canada, Chile or America, and whether a translation, new commission or adaptation, Prime Cut's presentations display a relentless curiosity about life on the margins and survival on the edge. For a society seemingly semi-permanently "on the brink of an abyss", such an approach can often chime precisely. It has enabled the company to present a succession of works which in a lateral and often highly subtle way can have real resonances with the world in which they are produced.

Most obviously, there have been works of overt political import. Death and the Maiden, Who Shall be Happy? and, most recently, The Coronation Voyage have won the company high praise for parallels which have been "fairly clear" but "not didactic… very subtle, very complex, never overdone" (BBC Radio 3). Both "inhabiting their roles and their historical moment, while contriving to have countless echoes of other times and other places", such individual productions have been seen as "landmark", a "creative coup", resonating "down the years to grip today's audience with their relevance", "searing but enlightening" in the questions they have asked. "What is the unavoidable price of change and in what coinage do we pay it?" summarised the Irish Times critic of Who Shall Be Happy?, presented at a time when the dialogue about Northern Ireland's new order had, it was thought, " ;temporarily fallen silent". How to come to terms with "brutal history - and to find a way forward", asked Death and the Maiden, opening even as the Frameworks for the Future document was unveiled. Meanwhile, The Coronation Voyage's chilling investigation of the "tyranny of martyrs" was seized upon as raising and confronted a significant element of Northern Ireland's "bitter heritage", the Quebec-based play enabling the company to address a complex issue "Northern Ireland has yet to face in the bright light of reality" (Belfast News-Letter). Going "right to the heart of justice, humanity, revenge and punishment", such exploratory productions have brought fresh perspectives to time-worn topics; the result, declared one critic simply, has been "devastating theatre".

Prime Cut's approach has not, however, been confined to the political sphere. Rather, it is perhaps in the social that its work has been at its most representative and challenging, not least because it has sought to represent to itself a society deemed by several critics in the recent Stepping Stones publication to have had a "regional propensity for artistic conservatism" over the last thirty years. People have consequently sometimes, it has been observed, been "easily shocked"; such attitudes can sit uneasily with a company determined to remind its audience that many of the problems that beset societies elsewhere also happen here.

As such, Prime Cut productions often directly confront an entire world-view of this society. This ambition has been welcomed enthusiastically by some, who have declared its work to have a "real ring of truth" in unearthing themes and issues where "what seems to be the outside world is, in reality, very far from that". Conversely, others have viewed the very decision to stage productions such as Shopping and Fucking as immoral, with refusals to recognise parallels between this society and that which the productions depict. That Prime Cut should consequently find its door picketed is certainly not unique; more remarkable, however, has been its consistent dedication in the face of such opposition to confronting all aspects of society, be they engagingly quirky or thoroughly disturbing. A Prime Cut production will most often not be pretty, easy or crowd pleasing; they foreground a succession of characters struggling on the margins and/or end uring in conditions where humanity is at its most vulnerable and uncomfortable. In so doing, critics have found such works brave and compelling, with a "spiritual and dramatic enormity"; some indeed have seen them as having a morality of their own.

In presenting such works, Prime Cut's original stated aims included those of high production standards and design as an integral part of the process; this has been achieved. It included a focus on plays each of which, in one critic's phrase, would be "a purely theatrical beast"; undoubtedly, this has also been the case. Yet notable as such achievements have been - and they are almost invariably noted - there is a final achievement of the company's work which should be mentioned: that of language. It is not simply what is said, but how it is said, which leaves a lasting impression: of musicality, of unfamiliar rhythms, of strange cadences and even sometimes a "strange poeticism". To bring such works to a tradition itself noted for lyricism is both to provide a welcome counterpoint to familiar sounds, and a real challenge to complacency on home ground. From this company, however, this is perhaps to be expected. The expectations from the beginning were high, and have since grown ever higher.

Ophelia Byrne has written and edited theatre publications and exhibitions including ' The Stage in Ulster' and 'State of Play? Theatre and Cultural Identity in 20th Century Ulster'. She was formerly Curator of the Theatre and Performing Arts Archive of Belfast's Linen Hall Library.