Interview: Theatre West

The brilliant Theatre West return this week to kick off their annual season of new plays produced at venues around town. The company – artistic directors Alison Comley and Ann Stiddard and their many long- and short-term collaborators – have been producing new plays in Bristol since 1997, always with an eye for smart, thoughtful scripts that address the concerns of our age.

Theatre West’s annual autumn season, for many years at the Alma Tavern Theatre and more recently at a wider selection of venues, has been a highlight of Bristol’s theatrical year for as long as we care to remember. This year, for the first time, the company will present work at Cheltenham’s Everyman Studio as well as Bristol’sWardrobe Theatre, acta Centre  and Zion Community Space, and will pay welcome return visits to Hamilton House and Exeter’s Bike Shed Theatre.

Here are Alison and Ann to introduce this year’s typically eclectic and thought-provoking season.  

The theme for our writers for this season was Getting There and, as expected our current crop of talented writers took this in their own different and personal direction, to give us another season of cracking new writing.

First up is The Orator by Marietta Kirkbride. A messily human thriller about the struggle of self-help and online identity. Marietta wrote one of the ten-minute pieces last season, and we were really interested in her idea of creating a world for one actor within an online space.
By creating a character that interacts with projected text and images rather than other actors, Marietta has given a real close up and personal challenge for any actor, but it’s one that’s being taken up with relish by Rebecca Newman (whom Theatre West audiences will remember from her mesmerising performance as a bereaved teenager in Miriam Battye’s Canopy of Stars in 2014).  We love Marietta’s ability to tell a story and hope the audience will be drawn into this on line world where nothing is as it seems.

Next we head to the heat of Nigeria for Eno Mfon’s Shipped, which tells the story of a young girl sent to stay with her silent uncle – and what she discovers about the mysterious country of her parents. Eno was keen to use this piece to explore her own family’s story as research and to develop an understanding of the Biafran War. We were interested to see how she could use the personal to tell a big story that isn’t often heard in the theatre.
Eno recently made national headlines by challenging Bristol University for the lack of black writers in their curriculum. In a Facebook and Instagram post which went viral, said she was “the only black kid” on her course and was told by one of the head lecturers that “there’s no space for black theatre makers on the curriculum.” 

Play three takes us into the life of a couple struggling with infertility in a world that thinks it can solve the problem. The Room Upstairs by Ben Callon explores this modern phenomenon with sensitivity and wit but also takes a darker turn into a world of folklore and superstition. We liked this juxtaposition of old and new with an honest take on the struggles for modern couples trying to conceive.

We already knew – from the ten-minute play she wrote for us last year, and from her successful play Score – that Lucy Bell writes cracking dialogue and, at a time when our world is dominated by discussions about Islam, we were intrigued to see where her exploration of Christianity would lead. This felt like important new writing territory and the resulting play Are You There (Nov 8-12, Zion, Bedminster Down: pictured top) is a sharp, multi-role comedy for two actors.

Our last writer Hugh McCann has the imagination the size of a planet! We were impressed with the vastness of his ideas (from Siberia to Mexico via London and India in an hour!) and, in Stomping on Shadows (Nov 15-26, Hamilton House), we look forward to a surreal madcap romp that will leave a smile on your face.

Theatre West is very proud of this year’s harvest of great scripts and talented new writers. Coupled with the skills of a great bunch of directors and actors and a whole set of new venues, we are in a very good place. It’s always great to see our shows going on to have extended lives and we’re very proud and almost a bit tearful to see Bea Robert’s show Infinity Pool up in Edinburgh, playing to packed houses. It’s great to provide tomorrow’s successful playwrights with a small first opportunity to get their work up and out there!

Theatre West’s autumn season runs from Tuesday, September 27 to Saturday, November 26 at venues around town. For a full rundown, visit www.theatre-west.co.uk/index.php?page=autumn