Gods and Monsters Theatre
This is the current name for Steam Industry’s London Free Theatre Festival which director Phil Willmott and producer Suzanna Rosenthal began back in 2003 after Willmott saw the 1,000-seater hollowed-out amphitheatre beside City Hall and conceived the idea of presenting plays there.
They have presented Greek tragedy, Lorca, Brecht, Shaw and specially written plays for young audiences.
Realising that audiences are often not familiar with ancient myths and legends, they now have a strategy of mounting a lively early evening show for youngsters with music, puppetry and humour. This explains the background as well as the story and acts as an explanation for those who watch the evening’s adult entertainment, who then already know about the classical gods or Nordic monsters of the grown-up story.
A humorous treatment of Jason’s voyage to gain the Golden Fleece set up the situation for the tragedy of Medea.
Their award is made for their production of the Ring Cycle Plays—Wagner without the music as it were—four plays with breaks between, that could all be seen in a single evening.