PLUCKING FRUITS FROM THE CULTURAL BUSH
".5. Stagin revolution
A new era is about to dawn for theatre in this country, when Vicky Featherstone takes up her role as the inaugural director of the National Theatre of Scotland next month. Here, she publicly sets out her agenda for the first time.
n l November I start a new job. When I walk in on Monday. head reeling from a thin night‘s
sleep stream of consciousness — what will I wear
didn't I really like my old job here begins the rest of my life kind of stuff — there will be no one to impress at the
ihotoeo iier. no one against whom to measure whether or l .
not I am appropriately dressed. no one to go for a quick drink with alter work. But don‘t feel sorry for me.
My new job is as director of the National Theatre of
Scotland and as such — the prestigious and committed hoard and one tireless officer aside — it is just me who will turn up on Monday. And I can't wait. I will walk into a moment filled with the weight of expectation: the National Theatre of Scotland has been a long time coming.
For many years there has been debate. even
argument in the theatrical and cultural circles of
Scotland (for that read ptibs and bars). What form should it take‘.’ Where could it be based'.’ Do we actually need it‘.’ After much consultation. in September 2003 the Scottish lixecutive put an end to the speculation and announced a two year funding package to bring this ambitious idea into being.
And what a being! The model is entirely radical and non-institutional. No shady corridors of power for the National Theatre of Scotland or backstage passes only for those in the know. No building to swallow tip our money in heating bills and toilet rolls. No mausoleum for the elite like many other National Theatres around the world.
It is an outstanding message to the country and beyond that theatre is vital to our wellbeing and we are going to be allowed to prove it.
Our National Theatre exists to produce and create work all over Scotland for all the many Scottish people in very different ways. It will spring tip where least and most expected. We will do new plays. old plays. plays for children and young people. plays which fully represent the rich cultural make-up of Scotland. music theatre and site specific work — that list is not exhaustive. We will introduce new and young audiences to theatre and fire tip those of you who go already.
For people deserve brilliant theatre in their lives. When I was a child I was taken to see Cinderella at the Ashcroft Theatre. Croydon. 11 was not actually brilliant theatre but when the coach appeared and six Shetland ponies suddenly tilled the stage I was in heaven. And later at the Edinburgh Festival when I saw Claire C oulter perform Wallace Shawn's sparse and political
monologue The Fever it opened up a possibility of
understanding. something so great a tiny pan of you is changed forever.
10 THE LIST 7—21 Oct 2001
OUR PLAYS MUST BE OF SUCH HIGH QUALITY THAT YOU MUST ABSOLUTELY KNOW WHY YOU WENT
And I am beginning to understand that theatre must be some kind of event however small. 1 don’t mean every night is the opening of the Olympics. btit stories. ideas communicated with humour and vitality. with gravitas and wit. with fireworks and inusic all made possible by the people who have turned up to watch the event. It must be affordable and feel like good value for money and must absolutely be about work of such hiin quality that you absolutely know why you went. To know how to make brilliant theatre is to define the undelineable bill I do know it needs time. talent. balls and a vision. How hard can that be‘.’ I want to get visual artists talking to playwrights. comic book writers talking to designers. composers talking to lighting designers and see if we can‘t try and come up with productions that are about where and who we are now ~ irreverent. thoughtful. cultured. funny. angry. This is the reason I have such a great job. And those people are already there in Scotland. doing extraordinary things and now they can do more.
Theatre audiences are not at their highest. btit then we do have high targets. There are 5m people in Scotland. I have a budget of £75m over two years to do all this. In the same way l have a moral and political responsibility to make this ground- breaking creation work. so do you. I will try to make brilliant. affordable events for you. but you must then come. you must be delighted. you must be distressed. you must tell other people to go when it is brilliant and tell them loudly when it is not. There are countries where even to tell a story in a formal setting is a political act. where a meeting of more than two people is a threat to those in power. Theatre encourages this. even demands it.
How do I feel about the weight of expectation? It‘s what any audience carries when waiting for a piece to start and that is familiar to me. I understand that.
qrapevme
Moving away {rem ’ the camera
I Fresh from the modest
success of Wimbledon, Paul Bettany has signed up to play a baddie in The Wrong Element. He will force security guard Harrison Ford to rob a bank
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