Once upon a time, fringe theatre was alternative in both form and
content. Radical collectives brought together by one form of
counter-cultural ideology or another attempted to change the world with
non-hierarchical structures which they attempted to implement both in
the rehearsal room and the office, if they had one. The rise of
free-market economics and the allure of public funding forced such
companies to professionalise in a way that may have allowed them to
join the party, but which arguably neutered the whole notion of
alternative and fringe theatre entirely.
Such notions of the contradictions inherent in the system interested
theatre-maker Jo Ronan when she worked for various theatre companies in
the 1990s, when, despite a seemingly radical agenda in terms of
productions, the accepted hierarchies and pecking orders remained in
place. Several years on, such ideas of what it means to make truly
collaborative theatre are explored in Leave Your Shoes At The Door, a
…
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.