When Tightlaced Theatre
and Sporadic Music's co-production of Susanna Mulvihill's new play,
1933: Eine Nacht Im Kabarett, opens in Edinburgh's Summerhall complex
in a couple of weeks, it not only marks the opening of 2014's
home-grown theatre season. The show also points to a fertile
under-the-radar arts scene that exists in the capital via a network
of young companies working in venues outwith traditional theatre
spaces.
This has recently
manifested itself, both in the In Your Face Theatre company's recent
revival of the stage version of Irvine Welsh's novel, Trainspotting
at Out of the Blue's converted drill hall home, and in the Village
Pub Theatre's ongoing presentations of new work in the back room of
the bar the company have adopted as home. Previously, the Siege
Perilous company have produced work at the Malmaison Hotel on the
Shore, while Creative Electric have been devising experimental work
with young people in the bowels of the Bongo Club. Tightlaced,
meanwhile, along with another company, Black Dingo, have opened
Discover 21, a thirty-five seat venue housed in St Margaret's House,
the former office block turned into studio spaces which previously
operated as The Arts Complex.
While such activities
puts paid to the myth that things only happen in Edinburgh in August,
it hasn't always been this way, as artistic director of Tightlaced
and co-founder of Discover 21, Jen McGregor, explains.
“When I started
Tightlaced in 2008, there didn't seem to be any kind of grassroots
theatre scene in Edinburgh,” she says, “and if I wanted to do
something outwith the legitimate theatre venues, I had to go to
Glasgow.”
While Summerhall has
opened things out for companies like Tightlaced, the Village Pub
Theatre, which was founded in 2012 by writer James Ley and others,
effectively created a space for themselves.
“It was really to do
something for the Leith Festival,” explains Ley, who is one of a
core of professional playwrights at VPT, which also includes Morna
Pearson, Catherine Grosvenor and Colin Bell. “We didn't think it
would have a life, but there was a whole group of actors and
directors keen to get involved.”
The result has been a
series of co-operatively run themed seasons of short works performed
script in hand. More recently, VPT has appointed Caitlin Skinner as
its first artistic director.
“I think Edinburgh's
got such fantastic artistic institutions,” says Skinner, a recent
recipient of a Creative Scotland artist's bursary, “but up to now
it's seemed to lack something grassroots and informal, but in a city
full of institutions, I think people really respond to something
that's a little underground and hidden away.”
That's certainly the
case for In Your Face Theatre, co-founded by director Christopher
Rybak and actor Greg Esplin after graduating from Performing Arts
Studio Scotland, based at the city's Telford College.
“We were feeling
pretty uninspired by a lot of the shows we'd been involved in,”
says Rybak, “and just decided to do something ourselves.”
In Your Face's debut
was a production of Tom McGrath's The Hard Man, co-written with Jimmy
Boyle, whose prison experiences the play was drawn from. “Once that
was over, we realised that we wanted to do something else, and that
it was going to be a proper adventure.”
Rybak draws much
inspiration from film, and stresses the immersive nature of In Your
Face's aesthetic in a manner shared by Creative Electric.
Founded by director
Heather Marshall in 2009 as a youth theatre, Creative Electric has
developed into an experimentally inclined professional company that
has performed in places ranging from the Bongo Club toilets to
skate-parks, taking in an arts centre roof in Stockholm en route.
“A lot of our work is
interactive,” Marshall points out, “and deliberately isn't
performed in regular spaces. If you perform in spaces where young
people go, they're more likely to become interested.”
Following the success
of their 2013 piece, Auditory Hallucinations, Creative Electric have
been developing their next production, based on a child's experiences
after he chose to wear a space mask to hide a facial deformity.
“We started off
small, but are now at the stage where we're funded, and ideally would
like to tour Scotland and internationally.”
While Creative Electric
have found their niche, part of the problem for many Edinburgh
theatre companies is sustainability. In a city dominated by high
rents and precious few spaces, only site-specific company, Grid Iron,
along with Stellar Quines, have survived. The fact that Grid Iron are
site-specific is itself telling.
That's not to say there
isn't a rich history of independent theatre in Edinburgh, from the
collectively-run Edinburgh Playwrights Workshop on the 1980s to the
Gateway Exchange based Mandela Theatre, which sired the Boilerhouse
company.
Such canny co-opting of
spaces runs all the way back to the 1960s, when a young GI called Jim
Haynes began hosting play readings in the world's first ever
paperback bookshop he opened in a site where Edinburgh University's
Informatics Centre now stands. Haynes' readings, of course, gave rise
to the founding of the Traverse Theatre, itself now a world-renowned
institution.
Bringing things full
circle, the Traverse will shortly be hosting a Best of the Village
Pub Theatre week. VPT are also recipients of the 2013 Tom McGrath
Maverick Award, which allows the company to develop new ideas.
Discover 21, meanwhile, will be hosting a series of events under the
name, Collider, which aims to pair writers up with directors
sympathetic to their work.
“Things are
cyclical,” McGregor observes, “There are bursts of energy like
the one that the Traverse came out of, but just now there's a lot
happening, and it's a very exciting time to be working in Edinburgh.
As far as Discover 21 is concerned, I'm hoping that, as word spreads,
it becomes a place where people can try things out with minimum
financial risk, and where artists and companies can pool resources. I
want Discover 21 to become a hub for people working at a grassroots
level, and I want people to be able to make experimental theatre in
Edinburgh for as long as I can.”
1933: Eine Nacht Im
Kabarett, Summerhall, Edinburgh, January 22nd-February 2nd
2014; Best of the Village Pub Theatre, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh,
March 31st-April 5th.
Beyond The Fringe -
Edinburgh's underground theatre companies
Discover 21 - This
newly opened 35-seat space is housed in a former office block, and
has already played host to several productions that allow companies
to experiment in a low-risk environment. Big aspirations and open
access are its aims.
Tightlaced Theatre –
Founded by writer/director Jen McGregor in 2008 as a new writing
company, Tightlaced have produced several shows, with 1933: Eine
Nacht Im Kabarett its most high-profile to date.
In Your Face Theatre –
Formed by graduates of Telford College's Performing Arts Studio
Scotland, In Your Face's productions of Tom McGrath's The Hard Man
and the stage version of Irvine Welsh's novel, Trainspotting, puts
the audience in the thick of the action in a provocatively immersive
style.
Creative Electric –
Originally founded as a youth theatre company, Creative Electric's
physical-based style has already seen the company perform in Sweden.
Drawing from real-life incidents, the company's aim is to produce a
highly-charged interactive experience.
The Herald, December 31st 2013
ends
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