Taormina Arte 1999 |
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The writer at the centre of the theatrical experience. On May 8, 1956 the Royal Court Theatre in London presented a new play by an unknown 26-year-old writer: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne. That play, dealing with the anger and frustration of modern youth, became a landmark in post-war British drama. In the intervening 43 years – to the exact day – the English Stage Company at the Royal Court has produced, literally, hundreds of new plays. It has also become a symbol, throughout the world, of a theatre in which acting, direction and design exist to serve the writer. The Royal Court has been often imitated. It has rarely been surpassed. There are many landmarks in the Royal Court’s history: battles with the theatrical censor over Edward Bond’s Saved in 1965; the opening of a second space, the Theatre Upstairs, in 1969; the appearance of great actors such as Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson in new work. The Royal Court has consciously fostered the development of work by women writers and ethnic minorities. Since 1994 it has also discovered a vibrant new generation of dramatist whose work has caused schock-waves throughout Europe and the world: among them the late Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Conor McPherson, Martin McDonagh, Jez Butterworth and Rebecca Prichard. For the past two years the Royal Court has been working in temporary homes in London’s West End. In the autumn of 1999 it moves back into its refurbished, historic theatre in Sloane Square. But its policy remains exactly the same as when George Devine first created the English Stage Company in 1956: to place the writer at the centre of the theatrical experience. Michael Billington |
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