Should Theatre Make Sense?
I've recently read an article by a British Theatre Critic exploring a strand of European work arguing that theatre should be ambigous. I'm not going to mention the Critic specifically of the work they're exploring because being a little grass isn't interesting. The question, how ever, is interesting to me and my goals as a Theatre Maker. Fundamentally for me the question "Should Theatre Make Sense?" is ridiculous because it offers the suggestion of absolutism. Of course Theat
All Theatre Is Community Theatre
All Theatre is for the community. Whether or not it's a community like Waltham Forrest (that I just saw Soho Theatre do) or whether it's for the National Theatre Olivier stage it's all for a community (At the NT or RSC or Edinburgh Fringe your community won't be geographical i& the wor. We, as playwrights/ directors/ theatre makers/ producers have to ask ourselves why we're making this here, why we're making it in this way and why we're making this now. It's lazy to assume th
Political Theatre in Theatres
Can Theatre be political and useful in buildings? In a quick development to production period we're talking about a year or so before anything can go on. How can theatre keep up with the intricacies of domestic and forgein policy in that time? Is Theatre the best medium for that? Recently I've been trying to make a treatment on the role of PFIs in England and Wales and gave up because I felt that the world was changing too quickly for theatre to be useful in the discussion. T
Theatre, The Church & Civic Centres
Firstly I just want to say I'm coming off the back of a week of celebrating All We Ever Wanted Was Everything opening at the Bush Theatre and I'm feeling a bit pickled. Excuse the invetiable incoherance of all this. Today marks 100 years since the Armistace to end World War One. Every year I go to church to remember my family and remind myself to act within the value system I inherited from them. They were miners, dockers, doctors, solicitors, teachers, NHS workers, mayors...
The Function of Art (Forward To Collection of Plays by Luke Barnes & Young Vic, Taking Part)
Humans started telling stories around camp fires with a very simple purpose: To share stories in the hope that the world would become easier for others. Since those days the world has changed but our reasons for telling stories stay the same. We tell stories with an intention. Whether it be to get people to see the world, to turn away from it, or to make others feel less alone all story telling has to have an intention in its telling. These plays exist with intention. They ha
The Journey and the Critics are Sirens
We have just opened ALL WE EVER WANTED WAS EVERYTHING at the Bush Theatre. It's been a hell of a journey and I have to say that sitting in the theatre on Friday with my friends, family, and my beloved Middle Child that I felt the happiest I've felt in a very long time. The reason being that I was able to sit at one of the most prestigious theatres in the world, on press night, with my social life on the line, knowing that I have just made something that is so me, that is so u