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Impossible Plays: Adventures with the Cottesloe Company
By Keith Dewhurst and Jack Shepherd
Methuen, £16.99
Dateline: 28th January, 2007
From 1970 to 1986 Bill Bryden ran an extraordinary company in the National's
Cottesloe. Actually starting at the Royal Court, it was extraordinary
in many ways: indeed, its very existence as a company within a company
was odd, as was its relationship with the rest of the National Theatre,
where it seemed to be perceived as the black sheep of the family which
was tolerated simply because it was family - and because it produced
some extraordinary plays.
It also had some extraordinary actors: Jack Shepherd, Brian Glover,
Bob Hoskins, Robert Powell, Mark McManus, Bill Owen, Tony Haygarth,
Niall Toibim, Robert Stephens, Frederick Treves, Derek Newark, Brenda
Blethyn, Lisa Eichorn, were just a few. But it wasn't just actors who
worked with the company: musicians were an important part of their work,
particularly the folk rock band Steeleye Span with Martin Carthy, Ashley
Hutchings and singer Maddy Prior (who, incidentally, was the daughter
of writer Alan Prior of Z Cars fame).
But it was the plays which were what set the Cottesloe company part
from the rest: epic, popular, working class, influenced by work from
Europe and America, plays which were outside the mainstream of British
Theatre. Bryden's production of The Mysteries is, perhaps, the one which
is most remembered today but almost equally important was their adaptation
of Flora Thompson's Lark Rise.
"Impossible Plays" was the term invented by Jack Shepherd
to describe the sort of production that they were keen to do, and it's
also the perfect title for the book which shows the processes through
which the company and its productions developed.It's divided into four
sections - At the Royal Court, Scotland, The National
Theatre and Reputations - and most of the chapters deal with
the plays that Bryden and his cohorts did: how they developed, how they
were rehearsed and, of course, the casts.
Dewhurst, the writer, and Shepherd, the actor, each write a short section
focusing on what they see as the important themes in each chapter, looking
at the same subject from their different perspectives, which gives the
reader differing insights.
It is a fascinating book. It is, of course, an historical record of
a company which broke the mould of British theatre, but it is much more
than that. There are many resonances for today's theatre and anyone
who is interested in theatre's future as much as its past will find
it compulsive reading.
Peter Lathan
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