Draining the provinces dry? ... BAC, soon to be providing accommodation for 24 artists.
If you are an emerging or even an established theatre maker must all roads lead to London? It certainly looks as if that is the case. The news that BAC is creating on-site accommodation for artists, which will allow up to 24 to live and work together in south-west London, may only add to the haemorrhage of talent from the regions.
In fact the BAC idea is an excellent one, not only because it makes London affordable for those getting by on very little, but because it also recognizes that artists benefit from the opportunity to live side by side and from the cross-fertilisation of ideas and creation of new partnerships that evolve. But it also inevitably promotes the idea that London is an essential destination if you want to make theatre.
To some extent that simply reflects the stark reality, whether we like it or not. There are more opportunities, bigger - although I think more fragmented - audiences and more jobs in London, and your work is more likely to be seen and noticed by producers and critics if you are showing it in London rather than in Bristol or Newcastle or on a rural tour. Yet there are plenty of great companies from Kneehigh to Forced Entertainment and Quarantine who are based outside of London and who, particularly in the case of Kneehigh, have created work that is very much informed by its geographical location. Forced Entertainment and Quarantine have seldom even performed in the capital. Yet they are major players on the international stage. They look to Europe and the US, not to London.
Increasingly, the advent of the electronic office means that it matters less exactly where a company is based. As companies such as NIE have proved, company members can actually live in different countries and only come together to make a piece of work. But even when interesting pockets of activity are occurring in places such as in Sheffield and Bristol, the dominance of London as a place to show work continues and will for as long as the National Theatre is not really a national theatre but a London one, the Royal Court and the Bush dominate new writing, and inequalities of funding favour London over the rest of the UK.
I was in Manchester last week at greenroom, one of the organisations that faced an Arts Council cut but which has now secured a year's further funding while its future is discussed. On Thursday night I attended one of its Method Labs, a showcase of work in an early stage made by four artists. The four pieces were selected from more than 40 ideas that were scratched all over the building last year, which just goes to show the breadth of talent in the region. The pieces I saw were intriguing, greeted with enthusiasm by an informed audience and the two best had an interesting take on gender politics: Chris Fitzsimmons' Past Indefinite is a wry look at being a man, while Nic Green's Trilogy: Part One is a politically engaged and joyous examination of what it really means to be a woman. I won't spoil the triumphant finale of Green's piece, but suffice to say that it is a brilliantly revealing and empowering few minutes that cheekily subverts the objectification of women's bodies that has become the unthinking cultural norm as yet another young actress announces that pole dancing is empowering.
Green's Trilogy: Part One - a second part will focus on the 1971 Town Bloody Hall debate when Norman Mailer squared up to leading feminist thinkers including Germaine Greer - will eventually end up in London (in fact at BAC in 2009) but it may never have been made without the support of greenroom. It is a reminder that while all roads may lead to London, there is plenty of action beyond the M25.
The upcoming Mayfest season at The Tobacco Factory, Circomedia, Arnolfini and venues all over Bristol is a case in point, bringing together international artists with local companies such as The Special Guests, Tinned Fingers and Search Party. Bristol at the moment seems to be a hive of theatrical activity; whereas somewhere such as Leeds has very little. I'd be interested to know why that is and what are the conditions necessary to allow theatre artists to really thrive in the regions? How can we best support theatre makers outside of London?
