Constellations was the previous regime, produced in 2012. The Ferryman was a Sonia Friedman production, not a Royal Court one. It has been very slim pickings there for the last decade and I hope they make an appointment that reinvigorates such an historically important theatre.
In a play full of characters either asserting or denying identities, there was something moving in the husband wandering through the play with no grip on who or what he was.
Can you imagine a stone at RSC or any of the front line directors. Maybe new team will brave it Whyman still in shock Nothing particularly exciting for a few months Tempest May begin revival Long way to go but a little optimism
I can’t imagine that Director list would have any interest in Stratford, at least not now. But the RNT back in my day (showing my age: Richard Eyre was the supremo) had many visits from McBurney and Warner not to mention people like LePage. Exciting times. What it was producing thirty years ago is superior in every way bar diversity to what its producing now.
Nice to have Simon Stone debut at the NT. I’ll certainly book. RuNo seems not to bring that sort of list in much: no Katie Mitchell since 2019, no Von Hove since 2017, no Icke since 2016, no McBurney or Deborah Warner at all.
My instinct is that the new artistic director will 100% be from our current roster of British Theatre Artistic Directors. It won't be someone with a body of work of Shakespeare productions. I'm thinking either Nadia Fall, Daniel Evans, Indhu Rubasingham or Tamara Harvey.
I don't disagree with having US board members especially as they seem to do a lot of fundraising there.
But, as many of us have said in discussions on the RSC, they should be aiming for excellence, the best Shakespeare productions you can see anywhere in the world.
This is true but I can’t imagine they could be further away from it. If they appoint Whyman or Polly Findlay or Simon Godwin, in my opinion, they really are finished. Another national theatre company allowed to dwindle into expensive indifference.
Norris has lost Travelex, raised the ticket prices through the roof and made the RNT somewhere the first rank of directors simply don’t want to work. He’s got worse and worse at the job and he wasn’t much good to begin with. I suspect financially Norris’ successor will inherit an organisation deep in the red. When you think that Hytner left Norris a profitable and successful RNT it is a crying shame indeed.
If it’s Whyman then they’re kaput. She has no record of attracting first-rank directors and likely no ability to attract them. I remember the RSC under Trevor Nunn and Terry Hands. I remember the RNT under Richard Eyre. If this autumn brings us Whyman at the RSC to set alongside the useless Norris at the RNT, I think I might start to oppose arts funding.
I think without an exciting new candidate, someone who will remake the company as a real force in 2022, the RSC is in danger of a huge funding cut. No one really knows what it’s for any more.
On another note: is it possible to change the title of this thread. I find the current one unnecessary and, while I am finding the posts interesting, I don’t like contributing to a troll’s vendetta.
Oh come on. The title fits the topic. Criticism isn’t trolling or a vendetta. Criticism of someone paid with taxpayers money at £250k a year certainly isn’t trolling or a vendetta.
I think honestly what happens now is that the writers take the plays to the directors more than to the building. I suspect the reason the Almeida get the goodies is that they’ve got two directors the writers want. I agree with what’s being said re the quality of NT dramaturgy but the weakness is in their lack of director relationships. NT got Alan Bennett plays because he wanted Hytner as director, now he’ll go to the Bridge. Bartlett and Hickson and Anne Washburn stay loyal to the Almeida; I bet you Graham will now too. Alice Birch stays loyal to Katie Mitchell, home and abroad. Hangmen was supposed to be on at the NT, and they jumped ship to the Court, and now the new McDonagh has gone to the Bridge. It’s about directors, not buildings/resources.
Point of Information - Norris is the first non-Oxbridge AD in over forty years (non-Cambridge in fact). A certain type of person doesn't like that sort of thing, lowers the tone of the place.
EDIT: Forum was dire, just appalling, Ed Hall screwed up Once in a Lifetime in the Olivier as well. My Fair Lady was solid but no greater than scores of West End musicals then and since, His Dark Materials was a stunning design in search of a script that stopped to think rather than just plot, plot, plot. Measure for Measure wasn't Complicite at their best, for that look to Mnemonic, Diappearing Number, Master & Margarita etc. Poor taste overall, only War Horse is worthy of being in a best of list over that period of time.
Are you suggesting that people don’t like Norris because he’s non-Oxbridge? I think that’s a bit of a stretch, given that the whole conversation has been about how weak his programme is.
Godwin's a crowd pleaser, Herrin has People, Places & Things, This House and a nice resume building up, Polly Findlay too. You miss out Van Hove (twice), Longhurst (twice?), both outstanding directors. Elliott has popped up, as have Mitchell, Tiffany, Turner, Cracknell, Daldry and Icke, Mendes, Hill Gibbins and Macdonald up shortly etc. etc. As I say, this conversation has been done before and it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
On the Hytner favourites, I found Davies to be solid but never spectacular, Mitchell I love (but seems to get a sniffy response on here), Tom Morris did three productions, all of them with a co-director (all good, in my opinion but, again, I liked A Matter of Life and Death on here more than most).
I’m not sure your scrutiny stands up to scrutiny.
It’s not about favourites, really, for me, but about which of the cream of the crop he’s got meaningful relationships with. I didn’t always love Davies’ work either but my god actors and audiences did and some of the shows were, on their own terms, wonderful. Hytner got Curious and War Horse and History Boys (whatever you thought of them, big lucrative hits) because those artists were at home at the NT. Noone seems to be at home there now, which means no hits because the directors don’t bring their best shows there.
Godwin and Herrin are directors for hire rather than artists in their own rights. I’d put Longhurst and Cracknell in the same group..
Turner is an omission on my list. Van Hove sort of, but he’s everywhere now. Elliot’s gone. Tiffany’s done one big commercial Disney show, indifferently reviewed. Mendes about to do the same. Daldry hasn’t been near the place, has he?
We have Hill Gibbons and Macdonald coming up but not Icke or Mitchell (unless I’ve missed something!). Mitchell’s only done Cleansed, and Icke only Red Barn, both back in 2016.
The Olivier theatre is clearly a long term problem, no doubt.
The difference is that Hytner had a team of directors in Howard Davies, Norris, Marianne Elliot, Tom Morris, Katie Mitchell who consistently provided him with good work for the big spaces. Add in repeat visits from Deborah Warner and Simon McBurney and you’ve got something Norris is nowhere near equalling.
Norris’ good associates are Dominic Cooke and Nadia Fall (who’s left to go to Stratford East). Then there’s Simon Godwin. Regulars are Jeremy Herrin and Polly Findlay.
Interesting. In 2007 the Olivier also had SRB in Much Ado and Anne-Marie Duff in St Joan. Hytner’s Hamlet with Kinnear played a tour after the Olivier and then transferred back to the Lyttleton.
You’re also not right about new plays never working in there. Her Naked Skin was excellent in 2008. Welcome to Thebes was a fair chalk above any of this year’s offerings. This House and London Road played better in there than they had in the Dorfman.
The real thing I felt looking at the Olivier list was the higher calibre of director Hytner seemed to be able consistently to attract. Norris either doesn’t like talent or doesn’t have the relationships or both.
As someone who probably goes to the theatre far less often than most here, it's interesting to see how intense some of the discussions about the relative merits of different creators & theatres gets on this board. It seems like discussions about sports teams.
And taking the cue from the football in the 1980s & 90s, I trust that this will all culminate in a 'pro-Norris' vs 'anti-Norris' TheatreBoard brawl in front of the NT soon.
It'll be a dark day for theatre-dom when the front page of the tabloids has a photo of members of this board squaring off against each other, framed against the southbank concrete, with rolled up programmes set alight and ready to hurl at each other. I wonder what the headlines will be...
I would imagine some on here will be arguing that whether or not they’re covered in blood is a matter of personal opinion.
Someone can seriously write that without any sense of irony?
Over the last decade, there hasn't been a play originating in the Olivier that has transferred anywhere. Why not? That seems to be the important question, not blaming someone for trying to break out of that cycle by producing three in a year. Now Norris seems to have retreated to the safer revivals in 2018, I think that's short sighted but understandable given that history and the lack of deeper analysis from certain quarters,
Anyone who looks at Norris vs Hytner and still thinks their deeply negative opinion of Norris is valid is someone who clearly missed Fram, Nation, and England People Very Nice at a bare minimum.
But you’ve picked those three from across Hytner’s reign. Norris managed Common, St George and Salome this year. Having seen all three you mention, in my opinion only Fram was as poor as Norris’ 2017 trilogy.
Personal tastes aside, it does seem clear from the lists that it’s difficult to argue that Norris, three years in, is a patch on Hytner as a producer and programmer.
Could you list the flops and the hits for those years? A little flesh on the bones of your personal opinion might make it more credible than simply a strangely defensive knee jerk blurt-out.
Moreover, 2017 has been the worst year the NT’s had for some time.
No it isn't.
If you aren't a disgruntled employee/failed auditionee/ignored writer then just go to other theatres. There are enough state supported venues and the same with privately funded ones. There is no shortage of competition for your money. Personally I've never been to the Royal Opera (ENO at times) but don't go on about how it should do more for me personally, that would just annoy those for whom it's a perfectly fine artistic experience.
Which year is?
It’s not my personal taste, rather the diminished status of the NT from an important world venue into it’s current muddle-headedness.
I’m not doing anything beyond starting a discussion. I’m not an ex employee, rather a loyal NT theatregoer for years who has absolutely hated seeing it descend into indifference since Norris took over. He is the wrong man for the job, though an excellent director in his own right, and I long for him to accept that and go. Moreover, 2017 has been the worst year the NT’s had for some time.
I endorse the good doctor Brock on this as heritage Shakespeare. It was a pathetic show.
It’s a crying shame how completely decrepit the RSC has become. I remember when, with Hall at the NT and Nunn at the RSC, it genuinely felt like the two major companies in this country were world-leaders. Hytner had a bit of that ‘wow’ factor early on at the NT, but now, it really feels like we’ve dropped to the back of the pack.