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Articles
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Articles |
Well, there goes 2000...(3)Theatres For the first time for many years, a new theatre opened in London. The Soho Theatre, which aims to be a venue for new writing, opened on the site of an old synagogue, but its first production was a revival of Julian Mitchell's play Another Country. And during the year construction started on two new theatres in the London area, at Kingston-upon-Thames and in Hampstead. Two established London theatres re-opened after refurbishment, the Arts and fringe venue the Bush, and, after many delays, in February the Royal Court, at long last, returned to its Sloane Square home, whilst, at the end of the year, the Almeida closed for refurbishment but gained planning permission to use a former bus garage in King's Cross as a replacement venue. There were major changes of ownership in the West End, with the Ambassador Theatre Group taking over seven West End venues from Associated Capital Theatres, whilst the Really Useful Group took over thirteen venues, including the London Palladium. The picture in the regions didn't look so good, however. After many attempts to save it, Leatherhead's Thorndike eventually closed permanently and the Sunderland Empire, one of the first civic theatres in the UK, was taken over by Apollo Leisure, which itself had been taken over by US entertainment giant SFX in 1999. Although the building remains the property of the city council, Apollo was given a twelve and a half year contract for the theatre's programming. However it was the Boyden Report which showed most clearly the parlous state of regional theatre in England. Most regional producing theatres, it said, were trading insolvently and it was only a matter of time before the whole edifice came crashing to the ground. At last ACE and the government were spurred into action and and money began to be made available - not in the full quantities needed, nor in a short timeframe, but, as ACE's response to the report, entitled "The Next Stage", made clear, regional theatre will not be allowed to die. Theatres had not been standing idly by, waiting for disaster to strike, however. Arts and Business reported the highest level of business sponsorship of the arts ever, but did warn that saturation point was being reached. One of the bleaker features of the year was what many considered the total waste of public money - in this case from the National Lottery - the Millennium Dome at Greenwich, which fell far short of being the visitor attraction it was intended to be. Well over £700m was pumped into the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), the company which ruins the Dome, and changes of management were forced upon it. The whole thing became the cause of a continuing political slanging match and it closes on the day on which this feature goes online, not with a big celebratory party with government and royalty in attendance but with a huge disco organised by private company, the Ministry of Sound. Companies Early in the year Scottish company Theatre Archipelago, formerly Communicado, closed and it was announced that the troubled Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich would lose its resident company when it re-opened. The largest Welsh company, Teatr Cymru Clwyd, faced major debt problems and rumours began to circulate about the possible resignation (or even sacking) of its director Terry Hands. Welsh theatre, in fact, continued to have major problems, with the entire theatrical (indeed the entire arts) establishment lined up in opposition to the Arts Council of Wales. Early in the year it was forced to cancel (or postpone, although not many people can see it ever being reinstated) its shake-up of Theatre in Education provision within the principality. In fact, so many of its policies came under fire that eventually Jo Weston, its chief executive, was forced to resign. Arguments about the future pattern of Welsh theatre continue to rage and the formerly united opposition has begun to fragment, with the so-called "elitists", led by Michael Bogdanov, coming under increasingly angry fire from the more "populist" wing. Scotland took a few tentative steps towards a possible National Theatre, with the proposal that such an entity should be company rather than building based. The Scottish Parliament, like the Welsh Assembly, has expressed strong support for the arts and more money is becoing available. But even the hallowed halls of the South Bank were not immune from unrest and problems. The RNT's Ensemble company collapsed in a heap and members' contracts are not being renewed after, we hear, only the personal intervention of artistic director Trevor Nunn saved two major productions, including Romeo and Juliet. Nunn himself came in for criticism that he had not appointed any associate directors during his tenure and he has said in a newspaper interview that he will not seek another term of office when his present contract runs out. Backstage industrial unrest has surfaced in many places during the year: the West End faces problems and the EU directive on working time is causing major problems for the RSC, with BECTU adopting an inceasingly hard line. It is pleasant to report, however, that in the last half of the year there has not been a single major news story about troubles at the Royal Opera House! Articles Indices:
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