| A Year of Boardroom Malfunction Like No Other |
My Year of Theatre |
| Medals for Franwen, WMC, Flying Bridge, Bale & Thomas, Gary Owen , Culture & Media 2023 , January 3, 2024 |
Continuing the retrospective of 2023:The reading of reviews and articles on this site averaged 24,250 a month. Musical theatre is an import sector for Wales. Musical theatre from Sheffield tours to Cardiff. Productions from Cardiff do not tour to Sheffield. But a revitalisation may be the way things are going. 2022 set it rolling with “Milky Peaks” and "Operation Julie.” 2023 saw Leeway, “TicToc” and Seiriol Davies again. In a topsy turvy world a national company becomes a fringe company and Franwen, a doughty Gog long-timer, rose to national standing. A medal for Gethin Evans and team for “Branwen: Dadeni.” * * * * It was a peak year for Wales Millennium Centre. As with the Torch the public communication of the company was praised , 9th March, on this site for its qualities: clarity, completeness, candour. An interface with the public of its kind could, and ought, to be the template for all. Theatre needs to be a rich ecology. “Es and Flo”, seen in Cardiff and London, is a part that matters: drama of modernity, structural complexity and difficult emotional truth. And then "Branwen: Dadeni". * * * * The Other Room found itself between two homes. Harlech Court saw what must be one of the longest end-of-lease periods ever. It ended with Matthew Trevannion's “Idle, They Yammer” in May. Later in the year the company joined with Grand Ambition for “Baba Joon”. . * * * * Touring is not as it was before the Covid-19 hiatus. It is not a Wales thing. Sometimes it can be a muddle. After several months of theatre drought Ceredigion received productions from Theatr Genedlaethol, Black Rat and National Theatre of Wales. The drawback was that all three played on two successive nights. Medals for getting out on the road go to Lighthouse and Black Rat. There is a voice that talks of putting the stories of Wales on a global stage. There are those that talk and those that do. Flying Bridge and Bale and Thomas talk less and do it. They were seen in Australia, USA, Scotland. “Shortlist” got its accolade: “An hour of perfectly-crafted, deeply intelligent and supremely witty Fringe entertainment.” Flying Bridge's “Horse Country”, sadly not seen widely across Wales, won itself the year's best critical line in “A Sensationally Satisfying Dose of Transfixing Bafflegab”. * * * * The feeblest cultural criticism emanated from BBC Cymru Wales television. Lethargy and deference were reported here 28th October. On BBC radio the Review Show, a spark of critical vitality for several years, was done away with. To reach the source you have to swim against the current. The best critical commentary of the year in Wales was recorded 13th July “Theatre in Wales: Comment.” Gary Owen: “We have the talent to do it. We don't have the conviction, the nerve and the leadership." Gary Raymond in October: “What we cannot have in Wales is a theatreland where Welsh language theatre is the place where real plays are put on, written by writers paid correctly, acted by big casts on big stages and directed by directors set free by real budgets. And across the street is yet another English language one man show about some recent RWCMD graduate’s love for aubergines.” (Source: https://www.walesartsreview.org/rhinoseros/) The best critical commentary in England was written by David Eldridge 2nd July on playwrights and theatre companies. Eldridge, and commentators who were informed, laid into many things: curatorialism now as an extension of managerialism, the nonsensical habit of ten-minute plays, the inattention of arts councils, the assertion of “supporting artists” while not producing. (Source: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/jul/02/playwrights-ghosted-ignored-by-theatres-david-eldridge) * * * * The deficiencies of leadership manifested themselves in 2023 in a manner without precedent. Across politics, sport, culture and media: 29th January: The Welsh Rugby Union lost its Chief Executive Steve Phillips “after accusations of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia were levelled at the governing body. 7th May: Adam Price fell from the leadership of Plaid Cymru after a report that the “party had failed to “detoxify” its culture and found evidence of misogyny, harassment and bullying.” 15th September: Wales Arts Review launched a blistering assault on the Books Council of Wales as “offering in its funding model is the gradual, painful decline of the English language cultural periodicals of Wales... radical, pragmatic thinking is required to counteract this turgid prospect. 27th September: The National Theatre of Wales forfeited the confidence of the Arts Council of Wales in its Investment Review. 29th September: Nation Cymru headed an article “Decline of National Theatre Wales ‘a national scandal.’ 9th October: Wales Arts Review returned to the Books Council as “out-of-date and inadequate, lacking in vision, creativity...not so much as a comma has moved in five turbulent years...a woefully neglected area of publishing in Wales, which in itself is a field that is sadly underserved by the body that should be fighting for it.” 13th October: The Western Mail wrote: “Serious questions are being asked as to whether the National Museum of Wales broke the law after paying its former boss £50,000 because he had “injured feelings”...a damning report by the Auditor General has exposed potentially serious issues. "A bullying row which led to a former rugby boss leaving his job at Museum Wales left taxpayers with a bill of more than £620,000, a report has said. Roger Lewis was the subject of complaints from two senior employees when he was the museum's president.” 13th October: The Chief Content Officer at S4C was sacked by her Chair for gross misconduct. 9th November: BBC Cymru Wales returned to the National Museum: “Bullying row over ex-WRU boss cost taxpayers £600,000.” “Roger Lewis was appointed by the Welsh government to be president of the museum from April 2019, before he recused himself in November 2022 as part of a settlement, and left on New Year's Eve 2022, three months earlier than planned. “Mr Crompton raised concerns over "serious governance failures" at the institution and said it could not show how it acted in the best interests of the public purse. Museum Wales, also known as Amgueddfa Cymru, said the report was not a "fair representation of the events that occurred". Mr Crompton found the "decision-making process concerning the resolution of the employment dispute with the former director general was fundamentally flawed". He said the museum had not been able to demonstrate it acted in the best interests of the charity or that the settlement represented value for money.” 25th November: The Chair of S4C went on to sack his Chief Executive. 7th December: The Books Council of Wales ended public subsidy for Planet and New Welsh Review, journals that go back decades. 19th December: After all the work over months that went into the Investment Review the draft budget announced by Finance Minister Rebecca Evans included a 10.5% reduction for the arts. 20th December: The Chief Executive of YesCymru was sacked by email. For the second time the organisation erupts. 30th December: Wales Arts Review rounded off the year, its last, with a powerful blast “State of a Disparate Union: Wales in 2023.” The National Museum and television were not included. Trenchant commentary was unleashed on the Books Council and the National Theatre- “the only decent drama National Theatre Wales has been involved in for nigh-on a decade.” To be read at: https://www.walesartsreview.org/state-of-a-disparate-union-wales-in-2023/ * * * * So many artists and companies in aspiration to perform to standards that excel. In juxtaposition with so much organisational instability. So many boardrooms in malfunction. A critical culture might wonder if a common thread is at work. . Alas, a critical culture in Cardiff is not to be had. It requires not just candour. It requires commitment. It requires courage before deference. Most of all the managers of culture need to care. They need to care about culture. Without an autopsy of honesty into organisational disasters they will re-occur. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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