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| Rufus Norris's National Theatre ushers in new generation of writers | Rufus Norris's National Theatre ushers in new generation of writers |
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| When the Canadian artist Heather Cassils was set alight on the Dorfman stage one afternoon last November as part of the Spill festival, it sent a visible smoke signal about the changing direction of the National Theatre under Rufus Norris. The announcement of Norris’s second season today includes further indications of the changing identity of the NT, the way it works with artists, who it works with and how, and the way that it engages with the rest of the theatre ecology through conversation, collaboration and co-production. | When the Canadian artist Heather Cassils was set alight on the Dorfman stage one afternoon last November as part of the Spill festival, it sent a visible smoke signal about the changing direction of the National Theatre under Rufus Norris. The announcement of Norris’s second season today includes further indications of the changing identity of the NT, the way it works with artists, who it works with and how, and the way that it engages with the rest of the theatre ecology through conversation, collaboration and co-production. |
| With the development and programming of Bryony Kimmings’s all-singing, all-dancing musical A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer, a co-production with Complicite Associates, which will have performances at Home in Manchester before it arrives in the Dorfman in the autumn, the NT is putting down a marker on intent. | With the development and programming of Bryony Kimmings’s all-singing, all-dancing musical A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer, a co-production with Complicite Associates, which will have performances at Home in Manchester before it arrives in the Dorfman in the autumn, the NT is putting down a marker on intent. |
| “Bryony feels absolutely representative of the kind of theatre-makers we want to engage with and this is exactly the kind of way we want to engage with her,” says Ben Power, the deputy artistic director of the NT. “She makes work that’s formally inventive, challenging in content and form, and this piece is on a big scale; being able to offer her resources and one of our main stages is a move forward for her and us.” | “Bryony feels absolutely representative of the kind of theatre-makers we want to engage with and this is exactly the kind of way we want to engage with her,” says Ben Power, the deputy artistic director of the NT. “She makes work that’s formally inventive, challenging in content and form, and this piece is on a big scale; being able to offer her resources and one of our main stages is a move forward for her and us.” |
| There’s also a new devised piece, Love, made by Alexander Zeldin, whose Beyond Caring, originally made for the Yard played the NT’s Temporary Space last year. Love will be created with child performers in a co-production with Birmingham Rep. The programming of Love in the Dorfman is not just a proclamation about the changing nature of the repertoire but also about who works at the NT and at what stage in their career. | There’s also a new devised piece, Love, made by Alexander Zeldin, whose Beyond Caring, originally made for the Yard played the NT’s Temporary Space last year. Love will be created with child performers in a co-production with Birmingham Rep. The programming of Love in the Dorfman is not just a proclamation about the changing nature of the repertoire but also about who works at the NT and at what stage in their career. |
| “Working with someone like Alex is a huge departure for the NT,” says Power. “There’s no script so we can’t programme it on that basis. That hasn’t happened often in the past except perhaps with Mike Leigh. It’s a huge leap for us to be programming and delivering work that adopts some of the process-led approaches we’ve had at the NT Studio for a long time in terms of development, but which in the past may never have been seen on our stages. It’s what artists need and want. In other words we are changing our practice and where we put our resources to meet artists’ needs.” | “Working with someone like Alex is a huge departure for the NT,” says Power. “There’s no script so we can’t programme it on that basis. That hasn’t happened often in the past except perhaps with Mike Leigh. It’s a huge leap for us to be programming and delivering work that adopts some of the process-led approaches we’ve had at the NT Studio for a long time in terms of development, but which in the past may never have been seen on our stages. It’s what artists need and want. In other words we are changing our practice and where we put our resources to meet artists’ needs.” |
| There is much more of this kind of work in the pipeline, and it’s a significant shift for the NT and comes about for several reasons. One is that Norris comes from a very different theatrical tradition than his predecessor, Nicholas Hytner, and has always felt very much at home in the Studio, a space for risk and experiment. The second is the way the old literary department has now been reinvented and amalgamated with the Studio to create the New Work Department under the leadership of Emily McLaughlin, who was previously at the Royal Court. That reflects changing definitions of what constitutes new writing, and the fact that plays are now often as likely to be wrought as they are to be written. There are also the lessons learned from the closure of the Cottesloe for refurbishment that led to the Shed/Temporary theatre whose rough provisional status allowed the NT to risk bringing in a new kind of work, which has also brought a new and younger audience. | There is much more of this kind of work in the pipeline, and it’s a significant shift for the NT and comes about for several reasons. One is that Norris comes from a very different theatrical tradition than his predecessor, Nicholas Hytner, and has always felt very much at home in the Studio, a space for risk and experiment. The second is the way the old literary department has now been reinvented and amalgamated with the Studio to create the New Work Department under the leadership of Emily McLaughlin, who was previously at the Royal Court. That reflects changing definitions of what constitutes new writing, and the fact that plays are now often as likely to be wrought as they are to be written. There are also the lessons learned from the closure of the Cottesloe for refurbishment that led to the Shed/Temporary theatre whose rough provisional status allowed the NT to risk bringing in a new kind of work, which has also brought a new and younger audience. |
| “The Temporary theatre was a totally pragmatic decision, brought about because the Cottesloe had to close,” says Power, “but it gave us a jolt. Maybe one that was needed. It made us think about work differently and look at how we can shift the model in the permanent spaces.” He goes on: “We need to make this building more open, more democratic and more transparent. The spirit of the Temporary space is seeping through the entire building, and creating a new energy.” | “The Temporary theatre was a totally pragmatic decision, brought about because the Cottesloe had to close,” says Power, “but it gave us a jolt. Maybe one that was needed. It made us think about work differently and look at how we can shift the model in the permanent spaces.” He goes on: “We need to make this building more open, more democratic and more transparent. The spirit of the Temporary space is seeping through the entire building, and creating a new energy.” |
| It’s an energy that is reflected in the programming of a new verbatim piece, Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State, created by Nicholas Kent and Gillian Slovo, who worked on the Tricycle theatre’s production Guantanamo ‘Honor Bound to Defend Freedom’ together. It is based on interviews with Muslims in the UK, France and Belgium, and will include testimony from parents whose children have gone to fight with IS or marry jihadists. | It’s an energy that is reflected in the programming of a new verbatim piece, Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State, created by Nicholas Kent and Gillian Slovo, who worked on the Tricycle theatre’s production Guantanamo ‘Honor Bound to Defend Freedom’ together. It is based on interviews with Muslims in the UK, France and Belgium, and will include testimony from parents whose children have gone to fight with IS or marry jihadists. |
| We have to be national in what we are debating, the subjects we are looking at, the people we are representing | We have to be national in what we are debating, the subjects we are looking at, the people we are representing |
| “It just demanded to be produced, it couldn’t wait, so we’re doing it as a final extra piece in the Temporary space before it comes down,” says McLaughlin, who suggests that such programming reflects a desire to be more current and responsive and fits Norris’s avowed determination that the NT should change to “reflect the city and the country we are in. We have to be national in terms of what we are debating, the subjects we are looking at, and particularly the people and stories we are representing.” | “It just demanded to be produced, it couldn’t wait, so we’re doing it as a final extra piece in the Temporary space before it comes down,” says McLaughlin, who suggests that such programming reflects a desire to be more current and responsive and fits Norris’s avowed determination that the NT should change to “reflect the city and the country we are in. We have to be national in terms of what we are debating, the subjects we are looking at, and particularly the people and stories we are representing.” |
| All this doesn’t mean that the classical repertoire or the new play written by a single author will be neglected. Chichester Festival Theatre’s acclaimed Young Chekhov season will come to the building during the summer and there are new plays by Nina Raine (Consent, co-produced by Out of Joint) and Lucy Kirkwood (Mosquitoes, which will be directed by Norris and which is produced in association with Manhattan Theatre Club). Both women have had success elsewhere, but have never written a new play for the NT previously (Kirkwood adapted Hansel and Gretel). | All this doesn’t mean that the classical repertoire or the new play written by a single author will be neglected. Chichester Festival Theatre’s acclaimed Young Chekhov season will come to the building during the summer and there are new plays by Nina Raine (Consent, co-produced by Out of Joint) and Lucy Kirkwood (Mosquitoes, which will be directed by Norris and which is produced in association with Manhattan Theatre Club). Both women have had success elsewhere, but have never written a new play for the NT previously (Kirkwood adapted Hansel and Gretel). |
| “Nina and Lucy landing at the same moment feels like a statement,” says Power. “The generation of writers who were filling the Lyttelton and Olivier 10 year ago were the Bennetts, the Stoppards and the Frayns. It’s crucial we make new relationships because it’s very much time for a new generation to claim the mantel of being NT writers.” | “Nina and Lucy landing at the same moment feels like a statement,” says Power. “The generation of writers who were filling the Lyttelton and Olivier 10 year ago were the Bennetts, the Stoppards and the Frayns. It’s crucial we make new relationships because it’s very much time for a new generation to claim the mantel of being NT writers.” |
| Those relationships also include co-producers and an understanding that the NT must be more collaborative. The National Theatre Scotland/Live Theatre hit, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, will play the Dorfman in August as part of its tour, and Sally Cookson will be directing in the Olivier this Christmas with a co-production with Bristol Old Vic of Peter Pan, a reworked version of her devised show seen at Bristol in 2012. | Those relationships also include co-producers and an understanding that the NT must be more collaborative. The National Theatre Scotland/Live Theatre hit, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, will play the Dorfman in August as part of its tour, and Sally Cookson will be directing in the Olivier this Christmas with a co-production with Bristol Old Vic of Peter Pan, a reworked version of her devised show seen at Bristol in 2012. |
| Just as the Temporary space was a pragmatic response to the closure of the Cottesloe but one that has paid creative dividends, so this new era of co-productions – the season boasts more of them than at any point in the NT’s history – is born of the fact that the funding climate is a difficult one and the NT will be losing an income stream with the closure of War Horse. | Just as the Temporary space was a pragmatic response to the closure of the Cottesloe but one that has paid creative dividends, so this new era of co-productions – the season boasts more of them than at any point in the NT’s history – is born of the fact that the funding climate is a difficult one and the NT will be losing an income stream with the closure of War Horse. |
| “The commercial income has been fantastic and rightly celebrated, and we’ve been lucky to have had it,” says Power, “but it protected the NT from the reality of having to remodel in the way companies and theatres have done all over the country since 2010. Now we are catching up with everyone in terms of asking the hard questions about what we need to do and what we really believe in. It’s exciting.” It is. The NT’s reinvention starts right here and right now. | “The commercial income has been fantastic and rightly celebrated, and we’ve been lucky to have had it,” says Power, “but it protected the NT from the reality of having to remodel in the way companies and theatres have done all over the country since 2010. Now we are catching up with everyone in terms of asking the hard questions about what we need to do and what we really believe in. It’s exciting.” It is. The NT’s reinvention starts right here and right now. |