| A Company Language All of Its Own |
National Theatre: Comment |
| Language, Reporting & Corporate Culture , National Theatre , October 12, 2026 |
The National Theatre of Wales was incorporated on 9th September 2008. The company, with a change of name, announced its closure on 10th June 2026. The reasons were withheld, although explained on this site only, for the benefit of those who follow culture, below 27th July. In the four months since that announcement was made no further information has been released. The company website no longer opens. The directors failed to comply with a regulatory document required in September. * * * * The culture and the language that the company developed to talk of itself took on a unique timbre. It expressed itself in a range of forms. The company's own online record is no longer available. But hundreds of pages have been deposited with Companies House. It is not new to report that the company was not truthful. The company's own website did not report the production record truthfully. That has been taken from public view but the records held by public authorities are viewable and carry signatures as public record. Thus the signature of Sir Clive Jones stands by: “NTW has presented over a hundred powerful productions that are nationally significant, ranging from the intimate to the epic.” Sharon Gilburd signed off the same statement after the change of Chair. Neither has been interviewed by any journalist in Cardiff. Sir Clive's one intervention in writing on the company under his stewardship is no longer readable on the company's own site. But it is held here, below 15th November 2018. Many of its statements are fantastical. A series of future actions was declared that were never realised. * * * * “We're going to fail but fail in really interesting ways.” That was Lorne Campbell, the third artistic director of the company, March 2020-April 2024. He was interviewed in “Agenda”, page 67, Issue 70, Spring/ Summer 2023. The company failed but not in an interesting way. One of Wales' veteran directors coined the term “theatrephobic.” The number of days in the year spent not performing is a matter of record. There were 26 days of performing in the year 2021/2022. April 2023-March 2024 had 21 days of performance in Wales and 4 in London. Roger Williams summed it up, below 21 October 2023: “The company hasn’t been producing enough work, especially work which is engaging with the general public. The company has lost a meaningful connection with the artistic community in Wales, of actors, of writers, musicians, dancers and so forth. And they seem to have become a clique...And of course what’s happened now is they’ve lost that meaningful connections with their funders, which leads inevitably to the closure of the operation.” * * * * The public interface split in several directions. The last subject that seemed to attract the company's attention was making theatre productions. One direction took on an extreme colloquiality. Thus a press release 7th March 2023 opened: “We gathered recently in person and virtually to share what’s coming up in 2023. We laughed, we danced, we shared, and we had a bloody good catch-up. “It was really exciting to share what's coming up over the next year, as well as our Strategic Plan 2023-27. Do grab a cuppa and have a look.” This is a national arts company communicating with a public at home and potentially worldwide. [To be concluded] Afterword: The confirmation statement was subsequently filed late after the date of this article. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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