Re-Staging Revolutions: Alternative theatre in Lambeth and Camden 1968-88, which opened at Ovalhouse on Sunday, is an exhibition drawn from the archive of Unfinished Histories. It will later be seen at Kentish Town Community Centre and Camden Local Studies Archive.
Ovalhouse, or Oval House as it used to be known, was an important place in the alternative theatre movement that this exhibition commemorates.
As Deborah Bestwick, Ovalhouse’s current director, said when welcoming guests at the exhibition’s launch, almost everyone who worked in alternative theatre in the 20 years the exhibition covers seems to have worked there at some time, so it was especially appropriate that this exhibition opens there as Ovalhouse itself celebrates its 50th birthday as a theatre venue.
It was in 1963 that then incoming director Peter Oliver began inviting experimental performance artists to appear there. He turned what had begun in the 1930s as a soup kitchen run by the Christchurch Oxford Mission into a centre for theatre.
The exhibition showcases the work of Unfinished Histories, an organisation set up by Dr Susan Croft and Jessica Higgs to preserve through documents, images, interviews, programmes, posters, sound recordings and video the work of alternative theatres companies, writers and performers. It concentrates on the period 1968-88 when these companies were most active, overturning the old order of the drama establishment with ideas that were artistically revolutionary and politically radical.
During those 20 years, more than 700 theatre companies were formed. Liberation from the Lord Chamberlain's authority and old censorship laws saw the growth of feminist theatre, black, gay, Asian and disability theatre groups were formed, sometimes fiercely agit-prop, TIE and community theatre and experimental work burgeoned until the funding crisis of the mid-1980s and measures such as Clause 28 of the Local Government Bill led to many companies being forced to close.
Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, it marks a particular stage in the development of Unfinished Histories physical and digital archive and web site. This easily accessible resource already features 50 of those companies, documented from archive material and with personal interviews recorded with practitioners, some of whom have died since recordings were made (which underlines the urgency of this ongoing project). Fortunately, there are many survivors, many of them, now grey-haired, at the exhibition’s launch.
The formalities of the opening were performed by Bill Paterson, with great informality. Paterson was himself a founder member, along with John McGrath, of 7:84, the company that took its name from the ratio of 7% of the British population owning 84% of its wealth—though one member of the audience interjected they thought it was 7% of theatre companies got 84% of the funding.
The exhibition presents material relating to two London areas, Lambeth and Camden, where so many companies were based, but features work from companies from all over the country ranging from Welfare State to Bloolips, Red Ladder to Forkbeard Fantasy, Gay Sweatshop to Clean Break, Portable Theatre to Bubble.
Among the programmes and posters on show, the display of lively graphics on a shoestring was a reminder of the bold originality of many of these companies, even before looking at the record of their work in photographs and recordings.
The range of material on the web site was demonstrated by Dr Croft with a look at what has been included on some sample companies. It is clear that this will be a useful resource that will also lead on to original material in this and other collections. Having made people familiar with its navigation, she conducted and recorded a public interview with a group of survivors from Pip Simmons's company with their memories stirred by a sequence of production images from their shows.
The free exhibition, which has been dedicated to the memory of Kate Crutchley, Oval theatre programmer 1981-91, who died earlier this year, continues at Ovalhouse until 21 December with a programme of talks and events accompanying it. It then goes to Kentish Town Community Centre for the first week of January 2014 and to Camden Local Studies Archive for three months from the beginning of February.
A well-illustrated booklet to accompany the exhibition, which provides a stimulating introduction to the archive and the subject of alternative theatre, has been published by Unfinished Histories in conjunction with Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance.