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Dateline: 30th March, 2003

Nunn Looks Back

112 major awards, including 42 Oliviers, in the last five years: that's the record that Trevor Nunn leaves behind him at the National Theatre. He is justifiably proud of that record and highlights it in an article in last week's Sunday Times

In many ways the article is an apologia pro vita sua - a justification of his time in chage of the RNT - and he tackles his critics head-on. He leaves behind him, he says, a National Theatre which

"has played to a wider audience than ever before, has changed the emphasis of its repertoire towards new writing, and ... is almost alone in being one of the country's leading arts institutions in the black."

He has aimed, he said, to serve "as many audiences as possible, popular and esoteric." No single group, he says, can claim ownership of the theatre and, in proof, he summarises the programme presented during his tenure:

"We have done 25 classic revivals (many of them neglected works of great rarity), 15 revivals of works of contemporary theatre, seven Shakespeares and 60 new plays.... It is worth stressing that I (also) initiated six musicals."

He denies the accusation of taking a "populist" approach to musicals, instancing the success of Bernstein's Candide and Matthew Bourne's Play Without Words.

He is proud, too, of his success in attracting a younger audience: during the Transformation season more than half the audience was under 35.

Other highlights of his tenure, he says, were the £10 nights, the outdoor theatre festival (Watch This Space), the internal alterations (including the creation of The Loft), the Studio, and the fact that he "put his head on the block", directing no less than 21 productions.

"There can be no justification," he ends, "for a highly subsidised National Theatre unless it is clearly and, by common consent, the flagship theatre organisation of this country. That is what I inherited, and that unassailable status is what I believe I am passing on. I wish my friends and colleagues who take command of the next stage of the voyage a period free of squalls, and all the luck in the world."

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©Peter Lathan 2003