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Articles
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Review of 2005Dateline: 29th December, 2005How will the theatrical year 2005 be remembered? Naturally there were productions, both in London and throughout the country, which will be remembered for a very long time - and some which have already been forgotten. Indeed, there are those which deserve to be forgotten! It was a year in which the religious right began to make its presence felt. It began in December 2004 with the cancellation of Bezhti by Birmingham Rep after violent protests by Sikhs and reached new heights with Christian fundamentalists demanding the cancellation of the BBC2 broadcast of Jerry Springer the Opera and threats against theatres which intended to host the tour. One extremist group even forced a Scottish charity to refuse a large donation from the cast of the London production. The arguments still continue, with Equity accusing some retailers of censorship for refusing to sell the CD. In February Nicholas Hytner, echoing the thoughts of many theatre people, claimed " unequivocally the right to be as offensive as I choose… and, on behalf of my colleagues, to tell any story we choose." It was a year in which London lost one theatre and gained another. The Arts Theatre closed in July and is unlikely to open again but the Sound Theatre opened just off Leicester Square in June but by December KIT Productions, which was programming the 200-seater venue, pulled out because of the failure of their Christmas production, Snow! - The Musical. Another London theatre was almost lost during the year. The Bridewell, which for many years had been instrumental in developing new music theatre announced in November 2004 that it would close in January of this year but it was saved in February by two amateur companies, the Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society (SEDOS) and the Tower Theatre Company. One new London theatre which didn't actually get off the ground was the old Alexandra Palace (the "Ally Pally"), which Complicité had hoped to refurbish and use as their base. However by February it was clear that the costs had rocketed to such an extent that the company reluctantly decided to abandon the idea. Black theatre company Talawa's plans to rebuilt the old Westminster Theatre suffered a devastating blow in July when ACE decided to withdraw its funding and even threw the whole future of the company itself into doubt. After the company asked for a judicial review of the decision in October, ACE announced that it would continue to provide funding for the company until 2007, after which it will be reviewed. Outside of London the Watermill at Newbury in Berkshire was put up for sale in June when its owners, husband and wife team James Sargant and Jill Fraser, decided to retire. An £3m appeal fund, the Watermill Theatre Trust, has been set up to buy the theatre and make necessary refurbishments. Of course the biggest theatre story of the year didn't take place in England at all, but in Scotland, with the launch, at the beginning of November, of the programme of the National Theatre of Scotland. After the surprise (which on second thoughts shouldn't have been a surprise at all) of the appointment of Vicki Featherstone as director in July of last year and the subsequent appointments, the programme launch was the culmination of something which has stirred real enthusiasm in Scotland (and real envy in Wales!). Not everybody loved British theatre this year, however. According to Peter O'Toole, it is "badly done shit" performed by "smart-aleck twats". In spite of all evidence to the contrary, the iconoclastic star said that promising young actors don't want to be involved in theatre. The BTG replied with one word: bollocks! There was the usual movement of directors between companies during the year. Dominic Drongoole was appointed to replace Mark Rylance at the Globe and his replacement at the Oxford Stage Company was announced as Rupert Goold; David Farr moved from Bristol to the Lyric Hammersmith; Jude Kelly was appointed to take oiver the South Bank Centre; Ian Rickson announced he would be leaving the Royal Court in 2006, and a new ministerial team at the Department for Media, Culture and Sport was announced in May. Prima ballerina Darcy Bussell announced her retirement; Alice de Souza was awarded the accolade of Woman of the Year by the American Biographical Institute; Shakespeare4Kidz' Julian Chenery was named producer of the year; ATG's Rosemary Squire became president of SOLT; Ian Herbert relinquished the editorship of Theatre Record and was succeeded by Ian Shuttleworth, and was then appointed chair of the Society for Theatre Research; Peter Doran of Milford Haven's Torch Theatre was named Manager of the Year by the TMA, and Norman Wisdom was still doing pratfalls at ninety! In September a new company, the Queen of Crime Theatre Company, to produce touring versions of Agatha Christie's plays was announced. A collaboration between the Christie estate and Bill Kenwright, it officially comes into being on 1st January. In June theatre book publisher Samuel French celebrated its 175th anniversary; in October it was announced that Harold Pinter had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and in November the Barbican announced that it will produce its first ever pantomime next year - and it will be written by the most unlikely of panto writers, Mark Ravenhill. In October Andrew Lloyd Webber sold four playhouses (the Apollo, the Duchess, the Lyric and the Garrick) to Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer and then bought out Bridgepoint's holdings in Really Useful Theatres so that, from 30th November, he became sole owner of the London Palladium, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the Palace, Her Majesty's, the Gielgud, the Cambridge and the New London. He also has a share in the Adelphi. He has announced that he will invest £10m on improvements over the next five years. And just this month in another major theatre business development, Clear Channel separated its international live entertainment business into a separate company, Live Nation, valued at $2.27bn, which will have four divisions, one dealing with theatre. The theatre division will be headed by the former actor who became MD of Clear Channel Europe, David Ian. During the year, too, we mourned the deaths of playwright and poet Julia Darling, writer Dave Freeman, playwright Christopher Fry, actress Sheila Gish, actor David Kossoff, film maker Ismail Merchant, playwright Arthur Miller, actor Sir John Mills, actress Patsy Rowlands, theatre manager Peter Sarah, actor Michael Sheard, pantomime dame Jack Tripp, director Clifford Williams and actress Mary Wimbush.
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