That Was the Week That Was
And an interesting week it was, too: full of theatre although I never actually entered one. Well, that’s not quite true: I was in a theatre’s admin offices, but not an actual auditorium or even rehearsal room. And yet…
I got a few hours break on Sunday night after uploading the weekly update and sending out the Newsletter, but then it was back to the computer to upload the Olivier results. And fascinating they were too, not so much for who won what (although there were some surprises) but because of how they reflect the split that runs right down the middle of London Theatre. As (almost) always, the successful musicals came from the commercial sector and the successful plays from the subsidised.
Plays have a hard time of it in the West End. They’re not a tourist target in the way that musicals are and so presenting them is a real risk. A well-known star - preferably from Hollywood or, failing that, a major TV series - can make a play a West End success but not always: even the young J. J. Feild and the very experienced Angela Thorne weren’t enough to save Ring Round the Moon which announced early closure this week after less than a month.
This, of course, makes the Theatre Royal Haymarket rep company such a brave - and risky - venture. I managed to see The Sea a few weeks ago on a flying visit to London and was greatly impressed. The matinee was packed, so I hope that’s a good sign for the future.
Anyway, apart from the usual BTG daily editing and updating, I’ve had two new plays to read, a quotation to prepare for a Theatre in Education project, some work to do on my next production (including listening to hours of music), discussions about future plans for the company and, of course, planning the coming weeks’ North East reviewing.
I hate doing quotes! Especially when you don’t really know what the job is going to entail. You have to pepper them with so many ifs and maybes - how, for example, can you give a firm figure for researching and writing a piece? It all depends on how much information is needed, how accessible it is, what approach the client wants you to take. It would be wonderful to have an administrator/executive director so I could just concentrate on the artistic side but, alas, that would cost more than we’ve got. I wonder how many theatregoers realise just how many companies are living from hand to mouth?
A friend of mine has just given up. He’s been supporting his company financially by taking far, far less than he’s earned and actually injecting cash from other jobs’ earnings for years, and now he’s had enough. I don’t blame him, but it’s so sad. The theatre world is littered with the corpses of small-scale but very good theatre companies. If the (financial) failure rate in the normal business world were a quarter of what it is in theatre, the government would be in a real panic.
And it’s not just companies: a young actor friend of mine, having just finished a run with a major national theatre company, is now cleaning houses for a living until, hopefully, the next job comes along.
What I haven’t (yet) done is write two articles that have been on the stocks for a few months or manage to get our What’s On pages online again. Sheila Connor, who reviews for us in Surrey, sent me an email on Friday (now lost in the great email diasaster of Friday midnight!) telling me that I should delegate. The fact is, I do but work has a habit of expanding to overflow the time available for it.
Back to my week: I’ve also changed my energy provider, thus saving £16 a month!
But I am going to the theatre tonight. Not to review, just to watch. ‘Twill be a nice change!