Looking ahead to the first Factory Company season

Tobacco Factory Theatres kicks off its very first Factory Company season later this month (February 22) with a brand new production of Macbeth directed by Adele Thomas.

For this groundbreaking season of dynamic work (Macbeth will be followed by TFT’s artistic director Mike Tweddle directing Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge), Tobacco Factory Theatres will become home to its own ensemble of incredible actors. The season will also incorporate a series of events connecting the productions with the local community, artists and audiences.

Here’s Mike to tell us more about the inaugural Factory Company season.

What is your aim with the new Factory Company season format? What impacts do you hope to have with audiences, performers, young people, the local theatre ecology?
First and foremost, we wanted to create unforgettable productions of these genius plays for our audiences. So we’re delighted to be working with world-class actors and creatives, and some of the best playwriting you’ll ever encounter! But another core vision of the Factory Company season is to offer more opportunities for audiences, local artists, workshop participants of all ages, and young people with whom we’re already working. We’ve ensured that more than half of the acting ensemble and creative team roles have gone to professional artists who are locally based.
We’ve also created some brilliant new ways for audiences to get under the skin of both productions, and to learn about the processes behind their creation (see here, here and here). Our Young Producers and Young Theatre Makers groups are working closely alongside the Factory Company to create events and performances that connect with Macbeth and A View From the Bridge, and to explore the themes and issues within the plays that particularly resonate with young people living in Bristol today.

Tell us about your two production choices for your first Factory Company season.
Macbeth is, in my view, the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays, and also the best suited to our intimate, electric, atmospheric Factory Theatre. It’s also hugely politically pertinent. Adele Thomas wowed us with her vision for the play: in her hands this will be a bold, revelatory and daring Macbeth.
A View From the Bridge shares something of Macbeth, in that both plays are utterly action-packed and thrilling, and feature the terrible demise of a flawed man and its impact on wider society. Miller’s writing is perfect. He tells a domestic story with microscopic detail and insight, at the same time as offering a powerful political critique that raises vital questions around immigration, gender and morality. And he doesn’t stop for breath!

Macbeth rehearsal images: Mark Dawson Photography

Tell us the thinking behind the various workshops and training programmes you’re running as part of the season.
All our workshops are about sharing the processes behind our productions and enabling a greater, deeper understanding of the stories than you could get from just seeing the show. But they are also always about empowering people through the learning of new creative and communication skills.
I’m particularly excited that this year we’ve launched a training programme for adults who are new to acting, Get on Stage!, which I’m co-leading every Tuesday evening from Jan-April, and which culminates in participants performing alongside the professionals in A View From the Bridge. The group of 26 are aged from 20-70, and are from all kinds of backgrounds and professions.
We want to offer them lots of new skills and knowledge about theatre, but we also hope the process will create lasting, meaningful connections between different people in our local community who otherwise wouldn’t have met. I’m learning so much from working with them, and their presence in the final production will enhance the power of the play, which is all about how a community reacts to a terrible event. And it will be an exhilarating final step on their creative journey with us!

And what about the changes this year: a Factory Company Season, and no spring visit from Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory (stf), who return instead in the autumn…?
It can only be a good thing for our audiences that they will be able to see two brilliant Shakespeare productions across 2018, each one with its distinct feel and energy. By moving to the autumn, stf will be able to respond to the growing national and international touring demand for their work, which is fantastic and well deserved, and meanwhile it has opened this space for us to work with a fully in-house repertory company for the first time, with all the new benefits for audiences and artists that we hope this will bring.

The 2018 Factory Company Season begins with Macbeth (Feb 22-Apr 7) and continues with A View from the Bridge (Apr 18-May 12).

Read more: Director Adele Thomas on ‘Macbeth’