Category: theatre

There have been countless comedies, musicals and tragedies, but only a few pure horror plays. Why is that?

The Arts Council of Ireland has engaged London-based consultants to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the Republic’s national theatre company. While the Abbey has a high reputation in the U.S., observers at home have lately found it to have serious problems with both costs and artistic quality.

“Jamie Hendry Productions, which is producing the show, set out to raise £650,000 using an online platform the company created specially for the project, with investment available at £1,000, £2,500 or £5,000.”

“I’m a populist, basically. I think a lot of culture is boring, and I like people to have a good time at my shows. There’s a sort of Roundhead bullshit around culture: the more serious and difficult it is, the more it hurts you and your audience, the more worthwhile it is. It’s a form of bullying.” (Note to Americans: “Roundhead” = “Puritan”)

Tony Robinson recalls when the ’60s counterculture, ’70s identity politics and the closing of the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship office led to the birth of alternative theatre.

“I think theatre has realised somewhat belatedly that it can no longer provide adequate competition for kids watching videos or computer games. It has to get the liveness back, and that is the only think it trades on.”

“The reconstructions are just that — re-creations of particularly inflamed and idiotic YouTube comment exchanges — except they’re acted out by two well-dressed, middle-aged British men (or men with stellar British accents) who sit in shadowy domestic interiors populated with high-backed armchairs and baroque chandeliers.”

Almost all of the 117 English-language groups that were getting funding are seeing cuts – many as much as 7 per cent to 8 per cent – so that 11 new groups could be added to the list. What began as an exercise in the much-vaunted “generational renewal” is raising some hard questions about how thin the gruel can be spread.

Dennis Kelly, who co-wrote the West End and Broadway hit, writes, “I know with absolute certainty that at that time no commercial producer would’ve gone near me. … If it was my money I wouldn’t have come near me either.”

“You get a script and a paper gown. You get $13.50 an hour. Our scripts are ten to twelve pages long. They outline what’s wrong with us — not just what hurts but how to express it. They tell us how much to give away, and when. We are supposed to unfurl the answers according to specific protocols.”