Inside The National’s Theatre Lab

It’s a facility designed to emcourage experimentation. “This ethos – encouraging people to throw around ideas, and paying them for the privilege – is the driving force behind the whole building. Aside from the two big spaces, the Studio comprises a huddle of small offices in which writers, directors and composers can do anything they like. What these people are given is ‘a room, a computer, a telephone, free coffee and a weekly wage’. What they aren’t burdened with is an expectation to ‘perform’.”