A theatre that isn’t taking risks may preserve it's old audience, but will fail to serve the whole community, suggests Lyn Gardner.
Should theatres continue to be in receipt of public money if they only play safe? As funding gets tighter, there is an argument which says that it’s only those venues that are taking risks and developing adventurous work that should get Arts Council funding. It’s easy to look at theatres that regularly enjoy enormous success and be impressed by what they do, but if a theatre is not having some failures, maybe it is not taking enough risks.
Failure is an inevitable part of risk-taking, and you discover things along the way. There’s the famous story in which Thomas Edison, shortly before succeeding with an invention, was asked what it felt like to fail in his endeavour. “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work,” he replied. Maybe some of those 10,000 ways had applications elsewhere, just as the things that don’t work during the R&D of a play, or in the rehearsal room, or even on stage, might turn out to be just right in another show or context.
But of course, failure and success and risk-taking all mean different things in different places and different contexts, too... Keep reading on The Guardian
Should theatres continue to be in receipt of public money if they only play safe? As funding gets tighter, there is an argument which says that it’s only those venues that are taking risks and developing adventurous work that should get Arts Council funding. It’s easy to look at theatres that regularly enjoy enormous success and be impressed by what they do, but if a theatre is not having some failures, maybe it is not taking enough risks.
Failure is an inevitable part of risk-taking, and you discover things along the way. There’s the famous story in which Thomas Edison, shortly before succeeding with an invention, was asked what it felt like to fail in his endeavour. “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work,” he replied. Maybe some of those 10,000 ways had applications elsewhere, just as the things that don’t work during the R&D of a play, or in the rehearsal room, or even on stage, might turn out to be just right in another show or context.
But of course, failure and success and risk-taking all mean different things in different places and different contexts, too... Keep reading on The Guardian