| What Can Be Done to Support New Playwrights in Wales? |
Theatre Event |
| Wales Arts Review 2nd Roundtable , Wales Millennium Centre , November 11, 2014 |
Kate Wasserberg is present to speak of the imminent Other Room. Theatr Clwyd's loss is Cardiff's gain and one potentially of great significance. The compact location is analogous to those venues in London- Hen and Chickens, 503, Red Lion and White Bear, Latchmere- which act as valuable try-out, testing and introducing feeders for Soho, Bush or Royal Court. I myself wonder whether new writing is not a metropolitan activity. No-one is counting new plays but I would hazard that ninety-something percent in Britain takes place in a few square miles of London. Start at the Tricycle, take a circle around Shepherd's Bush, through Battersea Hill, eastward, then northward to the Hampstead. If the rest of Britain came up with five percent of that total I would be surprised. Certainly, there could be no better preparation anywhere for the Other Room than a period of apprenticeship with the Finborough’s masterly Neil McPherson. “Why are Scots dramatists known around the world?” asks playwright Matt Hartley. The first is geography- if you are part of the audience keen to see whatever is on at Traverse, Oran Mor or Tron that is it. There is no popping over to Bristol, or last train back from Barbican or Donmar to Cardiff. But the second is to ask where their playwrights go. David Greig is a phenomenon all on his own, as much at home dramatically in the Middle East as making a bitter-sweet homage to Edinburgh, for which Cardiff has made no equal. But Gregory Burke at the end of the day walked into a bar in Fife to talk to serving soldiers. Owen Sheers took on something similar with “The Two Worlds of Charlie F”(reviewed on this site 26 July 2012.). It did not clock up a large number of London performances so its relative lack of coverage belies the fact that its audiences have run to tens of thousands. It came to Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre in March this year. It makes Owen Sheers the most-performed writer for theatre from Wales of recent years. The production hit home for a reason. The artists, writer, director Stephen Rayne and others, sought out and opened themselves to an aspect of human experience far from our common knowledge and experience. It is that exposure and personal hazard, that makes me worry when I read of boat trips and rural retreats where aspiring makers of performance mingle mainly with one another. Theatre’s purpose- and moral purpose at that- entails rubbing up against the world. “There is nothing wrong with the venues of Wales” declares a spiky voice from the floor. Nothing, that is, apart from a desirable wholesale turfing-out of their current managements. It is slightly too easy a solution. A basic point of economics applies. If you want to increase demand, then reduce the supply. Not that, as a viewer, I am going to recommend that the rich weekly offerings of theatre, dance and music be reduced. One aspect of theatre goes under-mentioned. Plays tour and perform in another form. “Garw” and “Y Negesydd” get good houses from a loyal and regular audience. Their audiences do not even make the distinction of new writing. It is simply drama. “Why do you think that is ?” asks a voice. The answer is twofold. Firstly, the bond between viewer and maker is closer. A lead actor is likely to be a familiar face from television. But the second factor is that there is not a lot of it about. Make anything scarce and its value rises, not that ACW should dream of staunching the glorious spread and diversity of companies under its wing. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
This review has been read 1635 times There are 25 other reviews of productions with this title in our database:
|
