Lyn Gardner on plays in pubs, getting creative and taking touring theatre to an already established community.
It's a Thursday night in the Fauconberg Arms, a 17th-century coaching inn in the small village of Coxwold in North Yorkshire. The dining room is crammed with more than 50 people who have come to see local company the Flanagan Collective perform their new musical, Babylon, which they have been rehearsing in a barn out the back of the pub. In the middle of the show, one of the characters offers another character a choice. In the tiny pause before the actor answers, a member of the audience pipes up and offers his piece of advice. In a theatre setting it would probably be inappropriate, possibly even embarrassing, but in this particular context it feels so right. Everybody laughs and joins in. The moment is suddenly electric; everybody is totally invested in the choice the young woman is about to make.
Touring theatre faces huge challenges at the moment. Even booking a tour to arts centres and studio spaces is becoming increasingly tricky, particularly for young companies. Touring and getting theatres and arts centres to book you was one of many issues raised at this year's Devoted and Disgruntled last weekend. Later this week I will be in Manchester at the Royal Exchange for Paines Plough's gathering called to investigate the changing (and increasingly fragile) ecology of small-scale touring and try and find solutions to some of the difficulties faced.
It's a Thursday night in the Fauconberg Arms, a 17th-century coaching inn in the small village of Coxwold in North Yorkshire. The dining room is crammed with more than 50 people who have come to see local company the Flanagan Collective perform their new musical, Babylon, which they have been rehearsing in a barn out the back of the pub. In the middle of the show, one of the characters offers another character a choice. In the tiny pause before the actor answers, a member of the audience pipes up and offers his piece of advice. In a theatre setting it would probably be inappropriate, possibly even embarrassing, but in this particular context it feels so right. Everybody laughs and joins in. The moment is suddenly electric; everybody is totally invested in the choice the young woman is about to make.
Touring theatre faces huge challenges at the moment. Even booking a tour to arts centres and studio spaces is becoming increasingly tricky, particularly for young companies. Touring and getting theatres and arts centres to book you was one of many issues raised at this year's Devoted and Disgruntled last weekend. Later this week I will be in Manchester at the Royal Exchange for Paines Plough's gathering called to investigate the changing (and increasingly fragile) ecology of small-scale touring and try and find solutions to some of the difficulties faced.