A brief glance at the touring schedule and my earlier state of chuffness vanished quicker than our recent summer when I discovered the nearest the production comes to Dumfries & Galloway is a choice between travelling to either Kilmarnock or Peebles. Both lovely towns with great wee theatre's, but still involving a 100 mile plus round trip to visit. So NTS, not so national then.
Dumfries Theatre Royal have recently been the recipients of some remarkable funding from the Holywood Trust. This essential funding will help the theatre stay alive and hopefully provide a venue suitable for the many touring companies that roam planet theatre. My gripe, however, is not with them or the lack of theatrical venues across D&G, but instead with NTS, who pride themselves on being a non-traditional theatre company with no need or desire for a home base, preferring to utilise other theatres and alternative performance spaces throughout the country. Yet, it's five years since the multimedia stramash of home, memory and death in 'Home Dumfries', four years since 'Black Watch' mesmerised weepy eyed Doonhamers in the now dilapidated Loreburn Hall and two and a half years since 'Transform Dumfries' boogied on down at the old Watling Street bus garage...since then nothing. NTS boast of having created an admirable 130 production at 120 venues across Scotland since 2006. Sadly only three have been based in Dumfries and Galloway. Not a great record, particularly when we're name checked in their mission statement proudly proclaiming productions from 'Shetland to D&G'...Shetland have had two productions 'Home Shetland' and 'Long Gone Lonesome', Duncan McLean's homage to Shetland blues man Thomas Fraser.
2010 saw NTS tour their critically lauded production of 'Peter Pan' a story with genuine relevance for Dumfries, naturally it visited Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Edinburgh and...err the Barbican centre in London. Enquiries as to when the production might visit Dumfries were met with stony silence... Was it lack of venue, audience, partners?
So as much as I love that the company are doing new Scottish work, what can we in D&G do to encourage them to explore the third largest area in Scotland and let some of the 148,000 of us living here enjoy their work? What other venues are there in the region suitable of hosting our national theatre company? They already use community centres, and school halls, get your suggestions in here and let's see if the Central Belt can hear us...
Posted by MMac
“Both lovely towns with great wee theatre's, but still involving a 100 mile plus round trip to visit. So NTS, not so national then. “ What? There are many people living in Dumfries and Galloway who have more than “ a 100 mile plus round trip to visit” DUMFRIES! Lets get real Commonty. Not so regional then!
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous, having lived in Newton Tootin' and and done the daily haul to Dumfries and back, I'm acutely aware of the 100 miles 'plus' aspect of my sentence.
ReplyDeleteIdeally it would be great to see NTS doing shows in places as far apart as Drummore Primary School and the Eskdalemuir Community Hub...
I stand corrected. Never read that extra bit into the 'plus' aspect of your sentence.
ReplyDeleteThe point you make on the National Theatre of Scotland ignoring D&G is absolutely spot on. Although you have missed the NT production with wonderful Cara Kelly starring in ‘Molly Sweeney’ in Wigtown in 2007. The NT also presented, 'A Sheep Called Skye', for those aged 5 and above in Booktown that year! Even so, five productions in total is a very, very thin list of NT touring productions coming to the South West.
You ask, “what can we in D&G do to encourage them (NT) to explore the third largest area in Scotland and let some of the 148,000 of us living here enjoy their work?” It is desperate for, as you say, population of D&G is 148,000 and population of Wigtownshire is 29,000, about a fifth. Is anything like a fifth of all D&G arts spending coming to Wigtownshire? If we can not properly share out arts spending in D&G - what hope in Scotland?
The Five Minute Theatre project in June was NTS at their best. 3 productions were created from the region including a new piece by local director Graham Main which was broadcast to a global audience.
ReplyDeleteThe project looked at that community creating their own work, and starting an engagement process with NTS from the community, and growing audiences which can watch the later work by NTS.
The other significant problem is the lack of venues that can take mid-scale or even large work throughout the region. I think the next DG project by them could be somewhere like Stranraer which desperately needs the feel good factor that such work can bring.
Thanks for noticing! Another massive theatre led initiative coming this way soon (as part of the Big Burns Supper)
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