The stage is set for theatre’s much-needed return in the coming months. But how has this year been for those at its heart, and what might we expect from its future? We chatted with Jez Bond, Founding Artistic Director of Park Theatre, and a certain national treasure named Joanna Lumley, to find out…
Joanna Lumley and Jez Bond
The next act.
Photos courtesy of Park Theatre, London.
PEOPLE
“It’s extraordinary how human beings are pack animals; we are herd creatures. We love things so much more when we are with people.” The wise words of Joanna Lumley will strike a chord with many of us, especially considering the events of the last 12+ months. If one thing is clear, the thrill of ‘live’ cannot be ignored.
“Look at football crowds, rock concerts, Glastonbury! The joy of theatres when they’re packed and all seats sold out… Your heart just leaps with excitement,” says Joanna. “You arrive, maybe grab a drink, you find your seat, shuffling along the row (“excuse me, thank you, excuse me”) and squash down, clutching your coat on your lap… the curtain goes up and – ah – something you’ve been desperately waiting to see starts. You’re shoulder to shoulder with the masses. Together, you can cry into your hanky, hold your breath in anticipation, or roar with laughter.”
Jez Bond and Joanna Lumley
The mother of performance
Joanna is a passionate champion of this much-needed medium: “Theatre is the mother of performance art,” she enthuses. “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, as the New York saying goes! A substandard performance on screen can be helped out in the edit, but you can’t escape on a theatre stage... It’s terribly scary, utterly thrilling, and completely vital.”
It’s no surprise that one of the country’s most beloved actresses is also a strong supporter of small theatres, one of which is north London’s Park Theatre, which has stood as a beacon for affordable and accessible performance for the past eight years. With West End transfers, five Olivier Award nominations, and title of The Stage’s Theatre of the Year, Artistic Director Jez is focused on ensuring that reopening to audiences goes as successfully as possible.
“As a small charity with no regular government or Arts Council funding, the closing of theatres has hit us particularly hard,” he explains. “As we brought the shutters down in March 2020, we had no idea if we would be able to open again. Thankfully the support from government eventually came in and we were also lucky to receive financial help from a great many individual donors. We’re looking at a proper opening in October when we can operate at full capacity – it’s simply not feasible to open with social distancing.”
Joanna adds: “Theatres simply can’t run on 50 percent. Like many venues, if they’re operating at half capacity, the money will quickly run out. Looking to the next few months, I think support will be needed more than ever. Especially, as the thing that really broke my heart was how we lost so many talented people – those who weren’t able to ‘wait it out’. Many of those lovely hard working people who would be behind the scenes making performances happen have just fallen through the cracks.”
Theatre, and all the connected industries and skills that come with it, is so vital to supporting creativity and community.
Jez Bond
You can’t escape on a theatre stage… It’s terribly scary, utterly thrilling, and completely vital.
Joanna Lumley
Jez, who knew from a very young age that he wanted to be involved in the running of a theatre, agrees. “Theatre, and all the connected industries and skills that come with it, is so vital to supporting creativity and community. I was lucky enough to not only be exposed to a variety of performances as a child, but also actively get involved in theatre production.”
“Back then, theatres would travel nationally much more, and our school theatre’s philosophy was ‘the kids run the building’. So – unbelievably – as a 14 year old, I was told ‘the National Theatre are coming tomorrow, here’s the lighting plan, let them in and help them tech the show’ and now here I am. It’s such an example of how, when you can give young people the opportunities to learn, they just thrive. It’s so important to me that Park Theatre champions that approach as much as we can – so the closing was just as much of a loss to the community as it was to the industry itself.”
We have had time to reflect on what matters, and strategise in a way we never would have been able to do when open… the distance of time and being able to listen is so valuable.
Jez Bond
A new direction
So how positive is the pair feeling about theatre’s return? “Oh, I do think we can count on the generosity of audiences,” insists Joanna. “There’ll no more debating whether to see something; now we’ll all be saying, ‘oh absolutely yes!’. As a society, we are very good at deciding: let’s make this work. We all know that if we lose entertainment, we lose everything. After all, what has gotten people through this past year is reading, listening to music, watching television, film nights, live streams of shows and performances, or binge-watching the latest show we’re addicted to – all of it. We love to be entertained. I think we need it back as fast as safely possible.”
Interestingly, this first wave of somewhat limited performances (and even those that follow) may help pioneer new concepts that could change performance culture in Britain forever. In the world of the arts in particular, creativity can often thrive in constraint.
“While we’ve been so busy holding down the fort, the past couple of months have also provided the opportunity to step back and look at what we’re doing objectively,” explains Jez. “We’ve had the chance to do much needed maintenance and repairs to the building itself. I think people often forget, but when a show runs for five weeks and finishes on the Saturday, the next show comes in to set up on the Sunday morning. So, as a small theatre that needed back-to-back runs to stay afloat, we hadn’t had a break for five years. Having time to do upgrade work is definitely one of the silver linings in all this.”
Jez also believes that there’s a positive feeling running through the industry that people are committed to doing things differently when they return. “The Black Lives Matter movement, for instance, has been transformative. It got us all thinking about how theatre, which is a great vehicle for societal shift and championing voices, can diversify itself even further. Like many other arts and performance organisations, we have had time to reflect on what matters, and strategise in a way we never would have been able to do when open… the distance of time and being able to listen is so valuable. At Park Theatre, we’re looking at evolving the way we run and operate, and how to drive more diverse work.”
We love to be entertained. I think we need theatre back as fast as safely possible.
Joanna Lumley
Spotlight on sustainability
Looking to the future of theatre more broadly, the sustainability of these (often heritage) spaces is coming to the fore. Having led the £2.6m conversion of Park Theatre – which created a bespoke building from the ground up between 2009 to its opening in May 2013 – Jez is a big believer in pushing for what others think is impossible.
“With Park Theatre, we were trying to build something from scratch during what was still a time of recession – everyone said we were mad. But with clever cost engineering, we managed to get a truly brilliant scheme on an exceptionally restrained budget. Of course, as an established charity, sustainable choices always have to be balanced against cost, but eight years on there are so many more opportunities. Our green committee, set up pre-lockdown, is going to help steer what we do in a holistic way, and we’ve already been able to embrace LED lighting in the theatre’s architectural and social spaces, which is a fantastic step.”
As many will know, Joanna is also a strong voice in the wider sustainability movement, lending her high profile to everything from the Gurkka Justice Campaign to Survival International, Tree Aid and the Born Free Foundation to name just a few.
“I think for me, awareness of the planet’s vulnerability is something that has developed over the years,” she explains. “It was initially instilled in me by my parents; my mother used to lead us little ones in our village to school picking up litter as we went. My parents were brought up in India and I was born and brought up in the Far East – so you get used to respecting things that this country would just chuck away. Even before recycling started here, it broke our hearts to see how casual we were in the UK; how indifferent we were at that time to the effect we were having on the planet.
Our green committee, set up pre-lockdown, is going to help steer what we do in a holistic way, and we’ve already been able to embrace LED lighting in the theatre’s architectural and social spaces, which is a fantastic step.
Jez Bond
When you care about things, the more you hear about what’s going on, and the more you connect the dots...
Joanna Lumley
“So gradually, simple sustainable behaviours sort of settled into my way of being. I found that I was naturally reducing, reusing and recycling. I was always darning jerseys and socks and turning hems up; respecting things is so important – especially when you’re skint as it’s the only thing you’ve got! I had a thrifty way of living, I suppose. But even so, back then, we still did think the world would go on forever, untouched. Our collective lack of empathy for the natural world was fighting the hand that feeds us. Thankfully a jolt has now happened. For me, certainly in terms of protecting wilderness and wildlife, a lightbulb moment came when I realised that the planet knows how to do it. It so often knows how to make things better. If we can try to leave it alone when possible or encourage it a little, at the moment it will restore itself; it knows how to bring the butterflies back to a region, or to grow its forests back.”
So how does one of the country’s still-most-in-demand actresses balance her campaigning alongside her creative endeavours?
“Oh what I like to do is just cram my days, darling! It all works in parallel. Being passionate about one thing doesn’t stop you doing another thing. If you love one person, it doesn’t stop you loving another. In fact, the more you love people, the bigger your love capacity gets. The same goes for any passion or cause.”
This big-hearted approach is certainly something we could all benefit from in the coming months. Indeed, for those who form the lifeblood of theatre and live venues in particular, it will be a lifesaver. As Joanna notes: “When you care about things, the more you hear about what’s going on, and the more you connect the dots. Because for all of this sad news, there is much more great news. There are creative minds out there. People who are determined to make the planet a better place. People who are working immensely hard and making all sorts of exciting things happen. Frankly, I am thrilled by what’s to come.” Find out more: www.parktheatre.co.uk