A lack of resources can spur theatre companies on to greater creativity and engagement with different audiences
Complicite’s early shows evolved as much from a lack of resources as they did from a specific aesthetic,and it’s been the same with plenty of other companies, from Improbable and Kneehigh to exiguous Bulb and Action Hero. That’s not an argument for artists starving in garrets or being unable to access subsidy and investment, and because you only enjoy to see – in the case of a company such as Complicite – how that aesthetic may develop when shows are properly resourced. I’m thinking of A Disappearing Number or the brilliant Simon McBurney solo The Encounter,which employs binaural technology to terrific effect. But it is a reminder that need can be a spur to creativity and make artists think about different ways of making theatre.
Need can also be a spur when it comes to spaces and stages too. If theatre-makers are locked out of working in specific buildings, however tough they knock on the door, and it can make them look for other places with interesting results. Mhora Samuel’s recent riposte to Nick Starr’s assertion that the West discontinuance has too few spaces suited to the needs of modern 21st century theatre pointed to the range of different kinds of spaces available for different kinds of shows. But one of the difficulties of staging work in the West discontinuance,or touring throughout the UK, is that many of the available buildings require work of a specific scale and therefore a specific kind too – so those spaces are defining and shaping the work that is made.Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com