 |
|
|
|||
|
Interviews
|
|||
|
|
Nicholas Hytner (2) The second part of Philip Fisher's interview with Nicholas Hytner, Director of the National Theatre. Catholic TastesIt is inevitable that any arts organisation will be governed by the enthusiasms of its boss. In this case, they are varied to say the least. "My working life and tastes are very Catholic. I have directed everything from a modern opera to the schlockiest movie". When asked to name the latter, he suddenly became very coy but it's a fair bet that he isn't referring to The Madness of King George. Those catholic tastes are well demonstrated by the answer to the question as to what he has enjoyed most in theatre in recent weeks. His choice is a seven minute pas de deux, Kim Brandstrup's Two Footnotes to Ashton at the Linbury Studio. As he says, he is a big dance fan which perhaps explains in part, his selection of Matthew Bourne's Play Without Words, yet another National success early in his reign. He recognises that the danger of variety and vitality is a lack of direction. However, "I hope that a robustness binds it together. The feature of the place is that it requires a communicative energy. Even the Cottesloe should always have protein in the meal". A Conventional BackgroundNick Hytner has experienced what he describes as a conventional background for a post-war theatre director. He was educated at grammar school and Cambridge and then had a substantial apprenticeship in rep. He can only identify one quirk in his early training and this was an early opportunity to direct operas. His first huge scale opera was Wagner's Rienzi, which he directed in 1983 at the same time as he was still very much a tyro director working at the Leeds Playhouse. He describes this as "a really useful apprenticeship" and identifies as the major milestones a period at the Royal Exchange in Manchester in mid-1980s, three shows for the Royal Shakespeare Company and, most significantly both at the time and in retrospect, his appointment as an associate at the National Theatre under Richard Eyre. Even that early, "I knew that this was the place I wanted to be". Award-Winning StartIndeed, he still has very fond memories of his first production there, Ghetto by Joshua Sobol for which (in partnership with Miss Saigon) he won Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Best Director in 1989. Hytner has nothing but admiration for his predecessors in the job. They are certainly a distinguished bunch starting with Lord Olivier and then running through those eminent knights, Peter Hall, Richard Eyre and Trevor Nunn. Hytner is single and, while he emphasises that he does have a life outside the theatre, knows that he works very long hours and cannot really understand how each of these family men managed to give the job the commitment and energy that it demands and also enjoy time with the wife and kids. No Blockbuster MusicalsOne change in emphasis that has been apparent since he took over from Sir Trevor Nunn is his apparent avoidance of the easy meal ticket of a big American musical. "We won't do blockbuster musicals. There are none left to do and now we couldn't rely on them. I love musicals - The Producers is how London theatre should be - but if the West End is thriving on beautifully produced musicals, we don't need to". The real point for him is that the only way that he would consider putting on one of these musicals would be if it could not be done elsewhere and at the moment, West End theatres are crying out for such productions. He emphasises that the National does have plans for musical theatre but on a much smaller scale. His real aim at the moment is to find, develop and produce the plays that will become successors to The History Boys and His Dark Materials, filling theatres and bringing audiences on to the South Bank. He accepts though that this will not be easy: "Something like The History Boys comes along once in a blue moon. It is a phenomenon". More Fantasy (and a scoop for BTG)Hytner emphasises that His Dark Materials represents a genre that he is keen to explore and develop in the future. "Creating ambitious, exciting and intelligent family theatre is what we should be doing. Theatres should collaborate with novelists to present more work of this type. I'm not sure that I should be telling you this but we will soon be announcing a production of Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin". This is a Whitbread winner, like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and will appeal to a similar audience. It is a rather macabre Gothic adventure set in eighteenth-century England. Moving ForwardsThis is a good way of using the always awkward Olivier Theatre and, in its director's mind, this is a way forward for theatre. In the past, he directed Carousel and Wind in the Willows to critical and popular delights but recognises there is a time to move on. "You have to be on the move in theatre and resist those who want you to stand still. Things do loop back and there will always be people who remember shows from when they were teenagers as better than anything today. The thing to avoid is the view that it was always better twenty years ago, so I have to be disciplined". To demonstrate this, he cites Kneehigh whose recent production of Tristan and Iseult in the Cottesloe was inimical to what he is used to. However, he regarded it as brilliantly communicative and therefore loved it. Co-productions and TouringThis is one of a number of co-productions that results from a deliberate policy on the part of the National's management. In this way, a theatre with a long literary realist tradition is able to share in the most interesting work around, whatever the style. This policy of collaboration also extends to touring National Theatre productions. "Our touring is stronger than ever. We had a year out and now we make it pay. We want to tour stuff that nobody else tours. Therefore there is no call for us to tour Shakespeare". This touring has also extended across the Atlantic to Broadway. In the last year, three National productions have appeared there, thanks to a relationship that has developed with two New York producers. This has allowed visitors to the Great White Way to see the finest that the National Theatre of Great Britain can offer with transfers of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers taking its original cast with it; and Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman and Michael Frayn's Democracy using local actors. Almost Tourist-FreeDespite much supposed evidence to the contrary, Hytner does not believe that that the tourist trade is that important to his theatre. "We aren't dependent on tourists and only have about 5%-6% of them in our audiences. It's vital that we don't go for any more as we are immune to fluctuations in tourism". He recognises that this is completely different from the position of West End theatres, which can be very heavily reliant on tourists. As he says, the National's tourists tend to be Theatre tourists travelling to London to gorge themselves, not people on holiday who fancy an evening out. >> Continued
|
||
|
|
