When John Durnin began his tenure as artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre in 2003, he arrived with a bucket-load of ambition. It wasn’t that Pitlochry was in a state of chassis in any way. Under its outgoing director Clive Perry, the theatre’s main stage repertoire had long been considered one of the most solidly impressive in the country. It was of such consistent quality that its diet of classics running alongside more commercial fare could have easily stood up to higher profile stalwarts on London’s west end.
Durnin, however, wanted more. In an interview with the Herald shortly after arriving in Pitlochry from Exeter’s Northcott Theatre, he expressed a desire to forge international relations with the Scottish diaspora as well as explore the work of contemporary writers such as David Greig. In an opening season that featured Stellar Quines’ production of Judith Adams’ play, Sweet Fanny Adams In Eden, playing within PFT’s grounds, Durnin’s heart was set on branching out even further.
Five years on, and with his latest season opening this weekend, at least some of Durnin’s ambitions are on their way to being realised. Opening with Wild Honey, Michael Frayn’s adaptation of what is believed to be Chekhov’s earliest play, PFT’s 2008 season focuses almost exclusively on modern work. As well as Frayn, the presence of Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennett in the season via Arcadia and Habeas Corpus respectively show off a deadly trio of writers who combine playfulness and craftsmanship with a sleight-of-hand commercialism based on reputation alone.
The older works on offer are similarly meaty. Shaw’s Heartbreak House and Goldsmith’s She Stoops To Conquer, after all, may be reliable favourites, but retain a gravitas beyond their immediate light and shade. The most recent play of all, however, shows just how focussed Durnin has been on realising his ambitions. David Greig’s Outlying Islands was first produced at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 2002. Its Second World War tale of love on an isolated Scottish island is not only a masterpiece that sits in equal footing with the rest of the programme. It is also an elegant bridge between PFT’s repertoires of old and its proposed future.
“There’s been a big reaction,” says Durnin, “both to Outlying Islands and Arcadia. There’s been this sense of people saying, my God, that’s not a Pitlochry play. In that way we feel like we’re beginning to break new ground. The last couple of years have seen PFT take some fairly big strides in terms of developing the repertoire. Where previously things may have been leavened by lighter fare, what we’ve got now is an extraordinary range of work by major writers that aren’t just good plays, but are great plays. We’ve had that before, but now it really feels like we’re entering new territory.”
The new territory Durnin talks about not only highlights the programme, but how PFT is funded too. The publication two weeks ago of the Scottish Arts Council’s Flexible Funding awards for 2009-11 appeared to withdraw support for Pitlochry. In concrete terms, this means the loss of £300,000 per year. Considering both the amount and quality of work produced by Pitlochry, this in itself is a relatively small sum when put next to bids from companies producing infinitely less work. Even so, rather than gnash and wail at the SAC’s decision as some companies with a zero next to their name did, PFT welcomed what appears to be a pro-active shift in thinking hopefully leading to a brand new set of funding arrangements.
“We always felt that we came under Flexible Funding very much by default,” says Durnin. “Part of the problem was that in our heart of hearts we knew we didn’t fit into that arrangement. So in terms of it not being appropriate for PFT to be flexibly funded, we agree entirely with the SAC. What we and all our funders need to look at is what PFT brings to Scotland, and how it feeds into Scotland’s artistic infrastructure. So there is a change in thinking going on, which makes for an ideal opportunity for a lot of our existing relationships to be re-thought. For once, Pitlochry is in the right place at the right time, and all that helps to develop the repertoire how we want it to develop.”
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is in a unique position in that it earns roughly 75 per cent of its own income (a cool £2.2million p.a.) through box office returns as well as its restaurant and other tertiary activities.
“We’ve always had one foot in the commercial world,” Durnin says, “and we’re fully aware that other companies can’t rely on that sort of large income like we can. So what may appear like disparities in funding actually puts us in an even more unique position. Even our repertoire system has very little to do with organisations in the UK. Having a resident company performing six plays is more in keeping with festivals in North America and theatre companies in eastern Europe than anything else.”
This is all a far cry from the perceptions of PFT as being purveyors of light and fluffy fare to bolster the tourist trade. Such presumptions may have been deserved a few years ago, though any lingering scepticism comes from its near autonomous existence beyond the radar of Scotland’s central belt.
“It’s a very curious place, Pitlochry” Durnin admits. “It takes two or three years to get your head round what makes it work, with the relationship with the town and the landscape. Then once you’ve worked it out, something clicks and it makes absolute sense. That’s strangely to do with managing multiple shows at the same time. It’s not just about producing a single piece of work, but a body of work.”
Which is why Durnin has given his seasons a broadly themed umbrella title. This year, Country Matters sums up the plays as well as tipping a knowingly theatrical wink to their more metaphorically inclined readings. As he’s long indicated, however, Durnin wants even more.
“Pitlochry’s always been about six shows,” he says. “We’d like to expand that to seven or eight. That way we can drop mire niche work into the season, and which may only plat for a couple of weeks before dropping out again. We can also start bringing things in late in the season, as late as September, with a view to how we can take them elsewhere. I’d like to look at more contemporary work from Canada, Scandinavia and anywhere else that has a geographic empathy with how Pitlochry sits in terms of the rest of Scotland.”
Durnin goes further.
“In ten years time,” he says, “I see that bigger repertoire as being achievable. By then I’d also like there to be a second auditorium with a capacity of 200, with a smaller repertoire of six shows. I’d also like to branch out more into site-specific work, using found and green spaces, and expand our education and life-long learning work. Al this would be served by a much larger acting ensemble of 25 to 30. We’ll also hopefully be connecting with other producers across the world in a very real way. It’s up to us to spread the word about what’s unique about us, and about how PFT is in the process of reinventing itself for the 21st century. We’ve rehearsed the arguments about that with ourselves for a very long time now. The first stages are in place. If we can make the rest happen, it will signal the biggest operational change in Pitlochry’s history.”
Pitlochry Festival Theatre 2008 – The Country Matters season
Wild Honey from May 16th
What is believed to be Chekhov’s first ever play, this young man’s fancy was given a new lease of life by Michael Frayn in 1984. The end result is an elegant farce with hidden depths about a once radical student turned schoolmaster who attempts to juggle four women while his life collapses around him. John Durnin directs.
She Stoops To Conquer from May22nd
Goldsmith’s restoration comedy pursues love upstairs and downstairs as young rake Marlow may be able to have his way with a conveyor belt of serving wenches, but falls to pieces when faced with a woman as powerful as himself. A posh-frocked delight, it will be difficult to match the recent commercial touring production. With
Richard Baron directing, however, it promises to pull out all the stops.
Habeas Corpus from May 29th
Alan Bennett’s medical farce is a right old carry-on penned in the spirit of Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw, appendages and all. As GP Arthur Wicksteed succumbs to a mid-life crisis by way of the vivacious Felicity Rumpers, the middle-classes grab hold of the permissive society to prove they still have a beating heart. Ben Twist directs
Arcadia from June 5th
The Scottish premiere of Tom Stoppard’s historical detective story concerning events that took place in the grounds of a stately home in 1809. Taking in landscape gardening, thermodynamics and the clash of past and present, this is a furiously intelligent work of late period Stoppard. Richard Baron directs
Heartbreak House from July 17th
Last time George Bernard Shaw’s country house tale of society at war with itself appeared in a production of note was more than twenty years ago at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre. Then, Rupert Everett starred in this 1917 set whirligig of fiddling while England burns. Now, Shaw’s salty role-call of inventors, bohemians, industrialists and weekend dalliances is the perfect vehicle for Pitlochry’s acting ensemble. John Durnin directs
Outlying Islands from August 20th
When David Greig’s play arrived at The Traverse in 2002, it marked Greig’s transition from an ambitious young stylist to a fully matured purveyor of situations which appeared conventional, but were riven with metaphor and emotion. During World war Two, a pair of Cambridge ornithologists are despatched to survey the birds on an otherwise uninhabited island. Here the two men encounter Ellen, a young woman in thrall to the movies, and also stumble on the real reasons why they’re there. A majestic close to the season. Ken Alexander directs.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s season runs until October 2008.
www.pitlochry.org.uk
The Herald, May 13th 2008
ends
Durnin, however, wanted more. In an interview with the Herald shortly after arriving in Pitlochry from Exeter’s Northcott Theatre, he expressed a desire to forge international relations with the Scottish diaspora as well as explore the work of contemporary writers such as David Greig. In an opening season that featured Stellar Quines’ production of Judith Adams’ play, Sweet Fanny Adams In Eden, playing within PFT’s grounds, Durnin’s heart was set on branching out even further.
Five years on, and with his latest season opening this weekend, at least some of Durnin’s ambitions are on their way to being realised. Opening with Wild Honey, Michael Frayn’s adaptation of what is believed to be Chekhov’s earliest play, PFT’s 2008 season focuses almost exclusively on modern work. As well as Frayn, the presence of Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennett in the season via Arcadia and Habeas Corpus respectively show off a deadly trio of writers who combine playfulness and craftsmanship with a sleight-of-hand commercialism based on reputation alone.
The older works on offer are similarly meaty. Shaw’s Heartbreak House and Goldsmith’s She Stoops To Conquer, after all, may be reliable favourites, but retain a gravitas beyond their immediate light and shade. The most recent play of all, however, shows just how focussed Durnin has been on realising his ambitions. David Greig’s Outlying Islands was first produced at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 2002. Its Second World War tale of love on an isolated Scottish island is not only a masterpiece that sits in equal footing with the rest of the programme. It is also an elegant bridge between PFT’s repertoires of old and its proposed future.
“There’s been a big reaction,” says Durnin, “both to Outlying Islands and Arcadia. There’s been this sense of people saying, my God, that’s not a Pitlochry play. In that way we feel like we’re beginning to break new ground. The last couple of years have seen PFT take some fairly big strides in terms of developing the repertoire. Where previously things may have been leavened by lighter fare, what we’ve got now is an extraordinary range of work by major writers that aren’t just good plays, but are great plays. We’ve had that before, but now it really feels like we’re entering new territory.”
The new territory Durnin talks about not only highlights the programme, but how PFT is funded too. The publication two weeks ago of the Scottish Arts Council’s Flexible Funding awards for 2009-11 appeared to withdraw support for Pitlochry. In concrete terms, this means the loss of £300,000 per year. Considering both the amount and quality of work produced by Pitlochry, this in itself is a relatively small sum when put next to bids from companies producing infinitely less work. Even so, rather than gnash and wail at the SAC’s decision as some companies with a zero next to their name did, PFT welcomed what appears to be a pro-active shift in thinking hopefully leading to a brand new set of funding arrangements.
“We always felt that we came under Flexible Funding very much by default,” says Durnin. “Part of the problem was that in our heart of hearts we knew we didn’t fit into that arrangement. So in terms of it not being appropriate for PFT to be flexibly funded, we agree entirely with the SAC. What we and all our funders need to look at is what PFT brings to Scotland, and how it feeds into Scotland’s artistic infrastructure. So there is a change in thinking going on, which makes for an ideal opportunity for a lot of our existing relationships to be re-thought. For once, Pitlochry is in the right place at the right time, and all that helps to develop the repertoire how we want it to develop.”
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is in a unique position in that it earns roughly 75 per cent of its own income (a cool £2.2million p.a.) through box office returns as well as its restaurant and other tertiary activities.
“We’ve always had one foot in the commercial world,” Durnin says, “and we’re fully aware that other companies can’t rely on that sort of large income like we can. So what may appear like disparities in funding actually puts us in an even more unique position. Even our repertoire system has very little to do with organisations in the UK. Having a resident company performing six plays is more in keeping with festivals in North America and theatre companies in eastern Europe than anything else.”
This is all a far cry from the perceptions of PFT as being purveyors of light and fluffy fare to bolster the tourist trade. Such presumptions may have been deserved a few years ago, though any lingering scepticism comes from its near autonomous existence beyond the radar of Scotland’s central belt.
“It’s a very curious place, Pitlochry” Durnin admits. “It takes two or three years to get your head round what makes it work, with the relationship with the town and the landscape. Then once you’ve worked it out, something clicks and it makes absolute sense. That’s strangely to do with managing multiple shows at the same time. It’s not just about producing a single piece of work, but a body of work.”
Which is why Durnin has given his seasons a broadly themed umbrella title. This year, Country Matters sums up the plays as well as tipping a knowingly theatrical wink to their more metaphorically inclined readings. As he’s long indicated, however, Durnin wants even more.
“Pitlochry’s always been about six shows,” he says. “We’d like to expand that to seven or eight. That way we can drop mire niche work into the season, and which may only plat for a couple of weeks before dropping out again. We can also start bringing things in late in the season, as late as September, with a view to how we can take them elsewhere. I’d like to look at more contemporary work from Canada, Scandinavia and anywhere else that has a geographic empathy with how Pitlochry sits in terms of the rest of Scotland.”
Durnin goes further.
“In ten years time,” he says, “I see that bigger repertoire as being achievable. By then I’d also like there to be a second auditorium with a capacity of 200, with a smaller repertoire of six shows. I’d also like to branch out more into site-specific work, using found and green spaces, and expand our education and life-long learning work. Al this would be served by a much larger acting ensemble of 25 to 30. We’ll also hopefully be connecting with other producers across the world in a very real way. It’s up to us to spread the word about what’s unique about us, and about how PFT is in the process of reinventing itself for the 21st century. We’ve rehearsed the arguments about that with ourselves for a very long time now. The first stages are in place. If we can make the rest happen, it will signal the biggest operational change in Pitlochry’s history.”
Pitlochry Festival Theatre 2008 – The Country Matters season
Wild Honey from May 16th
What is believed to be Chekhov’s first ever play, this young man’s fancy was given a new lease of life by Michael Frayn in 1984. The end result is an elegant farce with hidden depths about a once radical student turned schoolmaster who attempts to juggle four women while his life collapses around him. John Durnin directs.
She Stoops To Conquer from May22nd
Goldsmith’s restoration comedy pursues love upstairs and downstairs as young rake Marlow may be able to have his way with a conveyor belt of serving wenches, but falls to pieces when faced with a woman as powerful as himself. A posh-frocked delight, it will be difficult to match the recent commercial touring production. With
Richard Baron directing, however, it promises to pull out all the stops.
Habeas Corpus from May 29th
Alan Bennett’s medical farce is a right old carry-on penned in the spirit of Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw, appendages and all. As GP Arthur Wicksteed succumbs to a mid-life crisis by way of the vivacious Felicity Rumpers, the middle-classes grab hold of the permissive society to prove they still have a beating heart. Ben Twist directs
Arcadia from June 5th
The Scottish premiere of Tom Stoppard’s historical detective story concerning events that took place in the grounds of a stately home in 1809. Taking in landscape gardening, thermodynamics and the clash of past and present, this is a furiously intelligent work of late period Stoppard. Richard Baron directs
Heartbreak House from July 17th
Last time George Bernard Shaw’s country house tale of society at war with itself appeared in a production of note was more than twenty years ago at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre. Then, Rupert Everett starred in this 1917 set whirligig of fiddling while England burns. Now, Shaw’s salty role-call of inventors, bohemians, industrialists and weekend dalliances is the perfect vehicle for Pitlochry’s acting ensemble. John Durnin directs
Outlying Islands from August 20th
When David Greig’s play arrived at The Traverse in 2002, it marked Greig’s transition from an ambitious young stylist to a fully matured purveyor of situations which appeared conventional, but were riven with metaphor and emotion. During World war Two, a pair of Cambridge ornithologists are despatched to survey the birds on an otherwise uninhabited island. Here the two men encounter Ellen, a young woman in thrall to the movies, and also stumble on the real reasons why they’re there. A majestic close to the season. Ken Alexander directs.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s season runs until October 2008.
www.pitlochry.org.uk
The Herald, May 13th 2008
ends
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