When
Lu Kemp announced her inaugural season as artistic director of a re-developed
and re-energised Perth Theatre last year, she declared on these pages a
long-term goal of creating an ambitious programme that reached right across the
Perthshire region. Kemp also expressed the aim of developing the theatre as a
community space that belonged to everybody.
As
she reveals her second season in full in the Herald today, that continues to be
the aim, with a programme of old and new work housed in the theatre and the purpose-built
Joan Knight Studio. The latter is named in honour of Perth Theatre’s former
artistic director and legendary doyen of its past glories. The season will also
take in a rural tour that follows on from last year’s initiative, as well as a
visiting line-up of shows both for adults and young people of various ages.
Critically,
last season can be deemed a success. Kemp’s productions of Shakespeare’s
Richard III and a fine revival of David Harrower’s contemporary classic, Knives
in Hens, both received nominations for the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in
Scotland. This included one for Kemp as best director for Knives in Hens and
for Joseph Arkley as best male performer, while Jessica Hardwick won the best
female performer category for a remarkable turn in Knives in Hens.
All
of which is a difficult act to follow, but one which Kemp is relishing even as
she takes stock of the achievements of the previous year. The fact that she is also
planning for impending maternity leave after co-helming this year’s Perth
Theatre pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dames, with Perth stalwart Barrie
Hunter, makes things even more interesting.
“It
feels really different,” says Kemp sitting in her office, which, before the
rebuild, was the site of the theatre’s ladies’ toilets. “That’s partially
because I’m not directing any of the work apart from the pantomime, but it’s
interesting going into a second season, and having to adjust to what works for
an audience and cut a path that has something for all.”
This
is part of the thinking, one suspects, behind Perth Theatre’s main-stage spring
production of Gaslight, Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play about the psychological
manipulation of a woman by her over-bearing husband, who convinces her she is
going insane. Filmed twice, on one level Gaslight is a tried and tested
classic. The use of the term gaslighting to illustrate real-life examples of
psychological abuse has been in circulation since the 1960s. It has come to the
fore again more recently in a way that makes its appearance in Perth a canny
sleight-of-hand, not least because it will be overseen by director designer Kai
Fischer.
“As a
play Gaslight an absolute classic,” says Kemp, “and is something that front and
centre should appeal to a Perth audience. Bringing in an artist of Kai’s
calibre should give it a fresh enough resonance, but it’s also a really
interesting moment to be doing it. The term gaslighting has become so familiar,
and seems to speak so much about a contemporary malaise that the play can be
seen in a completely different way now than it was even just a few years ago.”
Already
announced is a new studio production of Miss Julie, August Strindberg’s simmering
cross-class erotic battle, seen here in the version by Zinnie Harris. This will
be directed by Shilpa T Hyland, the first winner of Perth’s Cross Trust Young
Director Award, designed to nurture emerging talent.
Lost at
Sea is Morna Young’s new play about a fishing tragedy which will be seen on
Perth’s main stage in a production by Ian Brown, while Marie, which has already
been seen in Edinburgh and Brighton, is a Mary Queen of Scots inspired play
co-presented by the House of Mirth company that will form Perth’s 2019 rural
tour. For children, Jenny Worton’s take on Prince Charming will be seen in the
Joan Knight Studio in co-production with the Little Angel company.
Following
visits to Perth by Barrowland Ballet with two children’s shows, Tiger Tale and
Playful Tiger, and Red Bridge Arts’ take on Black Beauty, the theatre’s autumn season
opens with the first of a thread of work that marks the one hundredth
anniversary of the end of World War One. The 306: Dusk is the third and final
part of a trilogy of plays by Oliver Emanuel presented in co-production with
the National Theatre of Scotland. This thread continues with Sound and Fury’s
sonic installation, Charlie Ward and Rosie kay Dance Company’s 5 Soldiers: The
Body is the Front Line.
The
visiting programme continues with visits to Perth by hit musical Glasgow Girls,
the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh’s staging of Touching the Void and the Manipulate
festival of visual theatre. For something completely different, there is the
hen night-based comedy, Girls’ Night OOT!, and the Dolls company in the
self-explanatory if double-edged Dragged Up.
Beyond
such japery, Kemp is currently in the thick of programming Perth Theatre’s
2019/20 season. Integral to that is an ongoing ambition to raise the bar of
what Perth Theatre can be, both at home and further afield.
“Long-term,
it’s about making much stronger connections, both nationally and
internationally,” Kemp says. “We’ve got the facilities and the capacity here to
make much bigger productions and have an annual touring profile. In the times
we’re living in there’s no excuse to be isolated. We want to make connections
as much as we can, and for people to look at Perth Theatre in the same way they
might look at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and the Lyceum in Edinburgh. I
think Perth Theatre is perfectly capable of having that same sort of profile,
and to collaborate with as many people as possible.”
The
306: Dusk, October 10-27; Snow White and the Seven Dames, November 30-January
5; Miss Julie, February 16-23 2019; Gaslight, March 23-April 6 2019; Lost at
Sea, April 27-May 4. Tickets for all shows at Perth Theatre except Marie and
Prince Charming are available now at www.horsecross.co.uk. Tickets for Marie and Prince
Charming will be available shortly.
The Herald, September 18th 2018
ends
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