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You're Wrong, Sir Cameron!Dateline: 13th July, 2003He's caused a lot of indignation in my neck of the woods, has Sir Cameron. No good new writing in the provinces? Shame on you, sir! Look what we're doing! Ed Waugh, co-author of Good to Firm and Dirty Dusting, appeared on the Radio 4 Today programme to tell us about the success of his plays. The company members and director of Boyle Yer Stotts theatre company have written to CM, suggesting he come and see their latest production, Ted Nasty's Park Bench of Mild Surprise. South Shields' Customs House manages to include at least two new plays by local writers in every season, usually more. And that's just from South Tyneside. The company at Live Theatre in Newcastle are also none too pleased. They have a writer in residence: in the past they had Lee Hall, for example, and Live launched his Cooking with Elvis which made it to the West End. Live - with justice - pride themselves on encouraging new writing. In fact, very rarely do they do what one might call established plays Now let's move northwards a tad, to Edinburgh. Ignoring the Edinburgh Fringe which produces hundreds of new plays every year, think about the Traverse Theatre. Lots of superb new writing there - David Harrower, David Greig, Gregory Burke.... Speed westwards across to Glasgow and take a look at the Arches and the Tron. More new writing - where did Zinnie Harris' Further Than the Furthest Thing originate? Now these are my "local" areas. I have no doubt that this pattern is repeated elsewhere. I know it is in Wales - take a look at Keith Morris' Theatre in Wales site to find out everything that's going on there. Could it be that Sir CM is talking purely about London? What about the National, the Royal Court, the Donmar, the Soho, the Bush, Jermyn Street, the Gate.... ? There is a lot of new writing - good new writing - being produced all over the country. It may not - probably will not - reach the West End, but it always seems to me that the West End is rather like the indoor shopping centres which have grown up all over the country in the last twenty years or so. When you're in one, you could be in any of them: similar layouts, the same shops, the same merchandise. There are some local variations, of course, but they are minor. In the same way, you can see the same shows in the West End, on Broadway, in theatres all around the world. If you want to see real British theatre, you need to go to the London fringe or to the provinces. The West End is, let's be honest, international, not specifically British. Real British theatre and real British new writing are alive and well and living outside of the West End. Long may they continue to do so! Articles Indices:
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