The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) believes that classical work will become dull, and might even perish in a vacuum, without the oxygen of complementary and provocative new plays. Simon Reade discusses his company?s strategy to present new plays at the heart of its classical repertoire.
It often amuses my colleagues working as literary managers in the many producing theatres, dedicated exclusively to new writing, that I should ever speak passionately on the subject of new plays. I demonstrably spend about 40 per cent of my time helping to shuffle the 40 titles Shakespeare had a hand in, and much of the rest rooting around literary works for adaptation. Equally, I find myself spending large chunks of time delving into the European repertoire, or digging up forgotten exciting plays from the Renaissance and Restoration.
However, I recognise that whatever the considerable attraction of seeing revivals of classics in sensational performances (like Samuel West in Steven Pimlott?s modernist production of Hamlet currently playing in Stratford), we all love to hear a story for the very first time. Many, of course, will hear the story of Hamlet for the first time this summer. So all plays are new plays to some people. But brand new, new plays can be incredibly exciting, and attract the audiences most keen to experiment.
It may seem audacious for the dramaturg of the RSC to be holding forth about new work when you?ve got theatres like the Bush, Hampstead or the Royal Court in London alone producing brilliant new work all the time. But the RSC has just presented in London ?This Other Eden?: a mini-season of five new play events from writers as diverse as the filmmaker Paul Greengrass, the fabulist Biyi Bandele, and the witty truth-teller Moira Buffini. And at the same time the RSC is premiering four major new plays by heavyweight dramatists, young and old, in Stratford.
So, here is a personal view of the new play aspirations of the RSC. First off, let?s differentiate between new work and new writing.
Original and brand new
The RSC maintains a pretty consistent track record on new work - embracing everything from radical re-interpretations of Shakespeare, to presenting a collection of ancient poems, with translations, (literary) adaptations, versions and dramatisations in between.
New writing strictly means original, brand new plays. In Stratford this summer we are just beginning rehearsals on David Edgar?s vigorously absorbing examination of conflict on Europe?s Eastern border ?The Prisoner?s Dilemma? and Peter Barnes? ?Jubilee?, a wicked celebration of David Garrick?s Stratford Shakespeare Festival which put the town ? and the playwright ? on the map nearly 250 years ago. New writing is not to be confused with - though always nice to be embracing - new writers. These are young writers, in whom the RSC will invest, and be seen to encourage, in order to stage large-scale new plays in the future. New writers can influence us as much as we should be influencing them.
While we always work with living writers as much as possible, within the context of a classical theatre repertoire, we recognise that only a commitment to new writing will give us the best possible relationships, the most challenging work, and the range of writers we will embrace as a permanent feature of our work. So our long association with Peter Whelan, for example, has brought the current production of his Berlin National Service play ?A Russian in the Woods?. Our new association with the young writer Martin McDonagh has seen the recent opening of the astonishing ?Lieutenant of Inishmore?, both at the Other Place in Stratford.
New writing strategy
A new writing strategy within the context of our artistic policy at the RSC can be constructed bearing in mind three chief things:
? An historical perspective: Peter Hall established the catalyst of new plays to classics and classics to new plays soon after the RSC started operating at the Aldwych in the early 1960s ? most famously with Harold Pinter. Later Howard Davies? and Walter Donoghue?s high-turnover, largely self-generating Warehouse Theatre (now the Donmar) ? the Covent Garden loft up the road from the Aldwych ? was an inspiration. Even though it?s possibly romanticised now, the Warehouse was the biggest stake the RSC has had so far in the cutting-edge discovery of new plays. It was a seedbed for the future.
? A vision of scale ? of resources, of language, of public agenda, of emotions ? uniquely available to a writer in a classical theatre company. The RSC?s unique position means we can offer writers and audiences the opportunities to take on work of poetic and epic ambition. It?s not just the relationship with the classics that can inspire writers and audiences, but the language skills of the actors, and the very nature of a national company engaging with the public play on a big canvas.
? A canny eye for positioning the RSC within the context of the new writing producing theatres at large ? placing ourselves confidently and realistically in an overall perspective - of the Bush, the Finborough, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Soho Theatre Company, Max Stafford- Clark?s ?Out of Joint?, ?Paines Plough?, and the energy seen recently in the West End at the New Ambassadors.
Core activity
In order to move forward, new plays will be built into the RSC?s policy as a core activity. New writing will be part of the cohesive and coherent artistic policy and creative planning, co-mingling with the classical repertoire, responding to it, of course, but also leading it.
Of all our repertoire we will be specifically prioritising and championing new plays because at the RSC they currently have to earn their place on stage by jostling alongside a formidable classical canon of Shakespeare, the Renaissance, Restoration and 18th century repertoire, European classics from the 16th to the 20th centuries and American 20th century classics. Because we want the distinctive flavour in our palate - the colour when mixing our palette - of new writing, our commitment to new plays over a dedicated, intensive period of time will be unwavering. This will give off a bold message to our audiences. Contemporary and relevant productions of classics are complemented by contemporary writers. We won?t pursue new writers and new writing according to success or fashion - perseverance and consistency are key.
A culture of dedicated new writing will influence our programming confidence and imaginations as a whole, and we expect to see new plays discussed on equal terms with classics. There are also very pragmatic reasons for allowing this culture dedicated to new writing to blossom: more new plays to complement the classics will prove attractive to performers; a consistent attitude will boost audience recognition and understanding; and a conspicuous dedication to new writing will breed more new writing. We have already begun to turn around the perception with a flexible approach to programming new commissions by established writers and, increasingly, by a new generation of dramatists.
The RSC doesn?t require a separate new plays? policy because its overall artistic policy will contain a new plays? strategy in order to fulfil its aims and aspirations to present new plays at the heart of the classical repertoire.
Simon Reade is Dramaturg at the RSC. t: 01789 296655 e: katehunter@rsc.org.uk