Tristan Sturrock’s eloquent voice filled the upstairs at the Bristol Old Vic as he read lines from Wild Oats (below), an eighteenth-century comedy by John O’Keeffe about acting and the theatre which in September will be the first play to be staged in the newly refurbished Georgian playhouse.
It is a fitting choice, and one which will be followed by something completely different, with the working title of Does My Society Look Big in This?
Co-written by Old Vic artistic director Tom Morris, it will be as topical as it is possible to be, about what’s happening in the wide world and, closer to home, Bristol, which will in October when it is staged be in the final throws of our first mayoral election.
Other shows to look forward to include ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, a Cheek by Jowl production; the Bristol Jam festival of improvisation; Before It Rains, a co-production with Cardiff’s Sherman Cymru; and two Christmas productions, Peter Pan, directed by Sally Cookson, in the main theatre, and Hey Diddle Diddle for younger children in the Studio.
Morris, dressed impeccably dapper as always yesterday evening in tweed jacket and trousers, was almost childlike with infectious enthusiasm and excitement for what the Old Vic will be presenting in its new season, in a theatre both ancient and modern, and whose gallery seats are currently being upholstered in a workshop somewhere near Paris.
“Throughout the theatre, we are going to reveal as many secrets as we can, while making it modern and well-equipped,” Morris said, as the aliveness of the Old Vic could literally be heard with the Young Company jumping on the ceiling above his head.
“It’s unbelievably brilliant to see you here,” Bristol Old Vic executive director Emma Stenning said. “It’s exciting to have a theatre full of people again.”
This is a little unfair on the theatre, as even though restoration has put the main auditorium out of action for the last 18 months, the Studio has seen packed productions, Treasure Island played to thousands on the cobbles outside, and Coram Boy played to thousands more thanks to a collaboration with the Colston Hall.
Stenning and Morris were welcoming us all yesterday evening not just to the launch of the Old Vic’s debut season in the newly refurbished theatre, but also welcoming an exciting new group of associate artists and companies.
One of these is Sturrock (left), best known for his starring roles in Treasure Island and Coram Boy, as well as his one-man show Mayday Mayday, developed through the Old Vic’s Ferment programme. The other actor on the list is Akiya Henry, who theatregoers will recognise from Swallows and Amazons, the Bristol Old Vic production currently enjoying a national tour.
Cookson, who directed Treasure Island as well as the Tobacco Factory’s Christmas hit Cinderella, is one of three directors among the associate artists, who also include writers and a designer, lighting designer and sound designer.
Alongside these individuals are four associate companies: dance company Champloo (White Caps), and theatre companies Firebrand and Kneehigh, and producers MAYK, the team behind the recent Mayfest.
“This exquisite auditorium has been lovingly restored according the brilliant geometry of its original design,” Morris said, “placing the actor at the centre of an intimate storytelling space, which is a unique architectural survivor from an age when theatre was charismatic, subversive and dangerously live.
“But the restoration looks forward as much as it looks back, equipping the new theatre for the vivid imaginations of 21st century theatre-makers, aiming to create an environment in which new theatrical languages can evolve.
“We are absolutely thrilled to announce this next stage in our relationship with this most beautiful playhouse, the artists who are as inspired by it as we are and the audiences who have so generously welcomed our programme over the last three years.”
For full information on the new season and more, visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk.
Everything’s good at Bristol’s Old Vic, but please do take a look at my You Tube video here, which gives a better account of this important playhouse by linking it with eighteenth-century pictures of a number of other theatres also built in the 1760s. It’s clear Bristol has unique qualities, at least in its survival, but it wasn’t a unique theatre building when it opened. It HAD to copy the structure of either Drury Lane, or Covent Garden Theatres Royal because they were two of only three or four playhouses in Westminster that could legally stage plays. And a key aspect of these two theatre spaces is that the wealthiest spectators sat in Private Boxes on both sides of the stage floor, with other wealthy spectators sitting above them. This brought these spectators face-to-face with the fictional characters who were the lead roles in eighteenth-century plays: servants, beggars, and prostitutes. These are the characters who most frequently interact with spectators in 18th century plays. Bristol’s Old Vic had a Leveller’s free stage front that brought, like Hogarth engravings, Britain’s aristocratic and monarchical abusers face-to-face with fictional portrayals of their victims: the poor. The need for this kind of stage arose from the 1688 Revolution, which made British monarchs accountable to the merchant classes, through Parliament. Merchants reminded the monarch of this in play productions staged in the Theatres and Theatres Royal they built in every major City across the U. K. But this came to an end in 1800, when a man attempted to assassinate King George III in his Private Stage Floor Box. New Theatres Royal opened with the stage boxes moved to an upper level. This combined with the rise in Victorian fire-prevention mechanisms, including the proscenium arch. When theatre managers refused to be persuaded by the Lord Chamberlian’s surveyor, Parliament enforced the proscenium arch in 1892, closing all theatres whose managers kept spectators on the stage floor. This abolition lasted only till the 1960s, when Stephen Joseph noticed plays don’t work in proscenium arch theatres. He opened the first English theatre with spectators close to the stage edges since 1892. though others had already been experimenting with this. It’s now the main trend in theatre buildings, so we’ve come full circle from the Rose and Bristol’s Old Vic. Mark Howell.