Inspire. UK Theatre (FCO, 2003).pdf

However although famous new

writing theatres such as the Royal

Court and the Bush in London and

the Traverse in Edinburgh

continue to flourish, offering

audiences the best of

contemporary British and foreign

plays, it is not just new

playwrighting that is thriving. The

play is not always the thing. At the

start of the 21st century, British

theatre has never had quite such

multiformity. When people talk of

"going to the theatre" they could

mean going to the commercial

theatre in the West End to see the

latest Andrew Lloyd Webber

musical Bombay Dreams or a

Hollywood star such as Gwyneth

Paltrow in a new American drama,

or, equally, they could intend going

to a railway arch in Bethnal Green

in East London to see a

performance art piece on the

theme of terrorism from innovative

young company Shunt. Or

spending a weekend on the South

Coast in early May where the

Streets of Brighton Festival offers

the UK's biggest showcase of street

theatre and large scale outdoor

performances that can attract

higher audiences numbers than a

Manchester United home match.

A new century has seen a

breakdown of the old divisions

between West End and Fringe,

regional and metropolitan, text-

based and visual or physical

theatre, new writing houses and

other theatres, indoor and outdoor

theatre. Puppetry and circus has

invaded the stages of the National

Theatre; physical theatre

companies such as Complicte and

Volcano are as likely to turn their

attention to a well-made play as

devise their own work. Successful

playwrights such as Abi Morgan

and David Greig will not only write

their own plays but also

experiment and collaborate with

companies such as Frantic and

Suspect Culture.

versions of Shakespeare directed by

Edward Hall at the beautiful little

Watermill Theatre near Newbury

in Berkshire, or the robust

productions by Barrie Rutter for

Northern Broadsides, the

Yorkshire-based company whose

mission to let actors speak

Shakespeare's verse in their own

dialects rather than received

pronunciation have proved

enormously popular with actors

and audiences alike. The Globe,

next to the Tate Modern on the re-

energised South Bank, has allowed

modern audiences to experience

the conditions for playgoers in

Shakespeare's time, while award-

winning touring companies such as

English Touring Theatre take fine

revivals of Shakespeare and other

classics into the regions and young

companies such as Kaos subvert all

expectations with a re-mixed

version of Titus Andronicus.

The old tensions between visual

theatre and text-based theatre are

melting away as companies realise

that they can pick and mix the best

from both forms. This year's

prestigious BITE season at the

Barbican includes the cross-cultural

contributions of companies such as

Motiroti and Duckie, the latter

more used to playing a gay pub in

Vauxhall than a major mainstream

arts centre.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Shakespeare doesn't just mean the

Royal Shakespeare Company, but

also the intimate performances of

Andrew Hilton and his ensemble at

the Tobacco Factory in Bristol, the

brilliant pared down, all-male

Traverse Theatre productions of Iron (right) and

Gararin Way (below)

We continue to build theatres such

as the exquisite modern version of

the 16th century Rose theatre that

has sprang up by the river in

Kingston Upon Thames to the

Southwest of London or the new

Hampstead Theatre, the small but

vibrant new writing theatre in the

Northwest of the City-but just as the

late 1960s saw theatre moving into

pubs, so many theatre makers are

looking beyond the purpose built

theatre. Southwark Playhouse, a

converted warehouse, the Arcola

(an old clothing factory) are two of

London's most recent and

sympathetic converted spaces, and

in Halifax, Northern Broadsides

has found a home in an old

textile mill.

the director/design partnership of

Wils and Louise Wilson whose

productions can often be found in

derelict houses or department

stores. Some of the most exciting

site-specific work has been done by

companies who specialise in theatre

for children, particularly for the

under-fives. Here companies such

as Theatre-Rites and Oily Cart lead

the way from most of the rest of

theatre in their use of found spaces,

the blurring of relationships

between performer and audience

and the creation of a kind of total

theatre where all the senses and

emotions are brought into play.

Using this approach Oily Cart even

produces theatre for babies.

sure of their role in a modern

world. But the realisation that

unless they changed and embraced

the future, together with an

injection of £25million the largest

annual increase in subsidy ever

received by any art form-has lead to

a new found confidence and a will

to experiment and take risks. Many

are now reinventing themselves as

centres of excellence and

discovering that audiences enjoy

being stretched and that popular

theatre doesn't have to mean dull

or play-it-safe theatre. Not only do

they produce their own work which

often reflects the ethnic diversity of

the local population, but also play

host to the best touring work from

companies such as page to stage

alchemists Shared Experience, new

writing specialists Paines Plough,

the versatile Out of Joint and the

infinitely inventive physical theatre

company Told by an Idiot.

Tiny theatres such as the Mercury

in Colchester have returned to the

idea of an ensemble company and

a mix of work that includes classic

plays and the best of contemporary

world drama from Arthur Miller to

Howard Barker. Larger theatres

such as Birmingham Rep and the

Royal Exchange in Manchester

have hit upon the idea of pairing

plays (Noel Coward's Private Lives

with Patrick Marber's Closer) and

running them in rep. Both

Sheffield Crucible, one of the UK's

Many practitioners go beyond this,

increasingly taking theatre out of

theatres or finding spaces that are

in sympathy with or the inspiration

for a particular show. A company

that specialises in site-specific work

such as Grid Iron is more likely to

perform in an underground

storage space or a children's

playground as a purpose-built

theatre, and the same is true for

Since the early 20th century a

network of government subsidised

regional repertory theatres has

criss-crossed the UK, providing

local audiences with local theatre

and British actors, directors and

designers a useful opportunity to

hone their skills and craft.. The end

of the last century saw both a crisis

of confidence and a crisis of

funding for these regional reps,

many of whom no longer seemed

Royal Opera House, London

and touring regional theatre, and

Hytner's opening gambit at the NT

is Jerry Springer -- The Opera, a

musical spoof of the true-

confessions style TV show. The

latter was developed at BAC, the

small South London fringe

powerhouse, which over the last

decade has nurtured many of our

most exciting companies from

Frantic Assembly to Improbable, a

company which is also under

commission to Hytner and the NT.

Alan Ayckbourn

a prolific

playwright and

the artistic

director of the

Stephen Joseph

Theatre in

Scarborough

(pictured on

front cover)

most exciting theatres under the

dynamic Michael Grandage, and

West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds

have found it as easy to attract

major classical actors and stars such

as Joseph Fiennes, Kenneth

Brannagh or Christopher Eccleston

and Patrick Stewart as the West

End, London's fashionable

boutique theatres such as the

Almeida and the Donmar, and the

RSC and National Theatre.

This more open kind of exchange

and fluidity between Fringe and

establishment theatre, small

companies and large, regional

town and London and all different

kinds of theatre is a new

phenomenon and one that in the

longer term can only be of mutual

benefit. A theatre culture that can

adapt and change and that is

prepared to value a superb outdoor

performance such as Improbable's

sellotape and firework extravaganza

Sticky or the boundary-breaking

shows produced under the auspices

of the forward-thinking London

International Festival of Theatre as

much as a revival of King Lear, is a

strong and dynamic culture and

one that can attract audiences of

all ages and backgrounds. It

reminds us why, even in this

technological age, live theatre

helps us tell the stories we need to

tell and make sense of and celebrate

the world in which we live.

Contacts

Edinburgh Festival Fringe:

www.edfringe.com

Edinburgh International Festival:

www.eif.co.uk

Barbican (BITE Season) :

www.barbican.org.uk

Royal Shakespeare Co:

www.rsc.org.uk

National Theatre:

www.nationaltheatre.or.uk

London International of Theatre:

www.liftfest.org.uk

Streets of brighton (Zap

Productions): www.zapuk.com

Royal Court:

www.royalcourttheatre.com

Total Theatre:

www.totaltheatre.org.uk

Live Art Development Agency:

www.liveartlondon.demon.co.uk

Independent Street Arts Network:

www.streetartsnetwork.org.uk

In a changing cultural climate the

RSC and National Theatre have

had to reassess their role as people

have asked what is the remit of a

national theatre company and do

we really need them at all. Both

now have new artistic directors in

place Michael Boyd at the RSC and

Nicholas Hytner at the NT both of

whom show strong signs of seeing

the national companies work as

part of the tapestry of British

theatre and organically connected

to it, rather than something

elevated and apart. Boyd's opening

season includes directors Gregory

Thompson and Sean Holmes

whose backgrounds are in Fringe

Researched and written by

Lyn Gardener

Picture credits:

Peter Dupont

Michael Nicholson

Douglas Robertson

Published by the Foreign &

Commonwealth Office

July 2003

www.fco.gov.uk

!nspire

UK Theatre

The UK has always had an

enviable reputation for theatre,

but it doesn't just offer some of

the best theatre in the world but

also the widest possible variety.

Over the last decade the UK has

seen a flowering of drama and

new writing with the discovery of

young talents such as Joe

Penhall, David Eldridge, Jez

Butterworth, Mark Ravenhill and

the late Sarah Kane. It has been

an era so rich and varied that

many have compared it to the

golden age of Jacobean

playwriting in the early 17th

century. Many of these

playwrights have, like their

Jacobean counterparts revelled in

the shocking and violent as they

try and reflect the society around

them, giving rise to the term

In-yer-face theatre. Others such

as Gregory Burke and Charlotte

Jones are proving themselves as

popular writers with a strong

gift for comedy.

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: