Alternative models for artistic directorships, playwright Jessica Hagan, and three shows to see.
Why do buildings have to be led by one director? Why not have a designer, a collective, or no-one run a theatre? Plus: Queens Of Sheba playwright Jessica Hagan, three shows to see, and more.
Hello, and welcome to The Crush Bar, a weekly newsletter about theatre written by me, Fergus Morgan.
Below, you will find a bit about alternative models of artistic directorships, inspired by various developments over recent weeks, followed by a chat with Ghanaian-British playwright Jessica Hagan about her new play Brenda’s Got A Baby at the New Diorama, and three show recommendations for next week: one in Scotland, one in London, and one in Stratford.
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I have been thinking a lot about leadership lately – partly because of Andy Arnold ending his fifteen-year stint at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, partly because of David Byrne’s appointment at the Royal Court and the news that Bec Martin will succeed him at the New Diorama, partly because of the Manchester Royal Exchange’s statement that it will no longer have an artistic director, and partly because of the ongoing speculation over who will succeed Rufus Norris at the National Theatre.
I have written about all that elsewhere, but I wanted to take some space in this issue to consider the role of the artistic director - and to suggest some alternatives. For me, the appointment of a new leader should mark a moment of regeneration for a venue. It should signal the end of one era and the beginning of another. It should bring a new attitude, a new artistic sensibility, and a new address book of artists into a building. It should mark a moment of change in the eternal evolution of the British theatre. It should, in short, be transformational.
Sometimes, this is the case. I think Byrne’s appointment at the Royal Court is particularly exciting, for example, and wrote as much in The Stage when it was announced. He made his name as a facilitator of young, devising theatre companies: how that will mesh with the Royal Court’s traditional focus on the primacy of the playwright will be fascinating. We will have to wait and see. I am less familiar with Martin’s work and with the Manchester Royal Exchange, but both seem intriguing developments, too - although, as TimeOut’s Andrzej Lukowski has pointed out with regard to the latter, we should be careful about attributing artistic ambition to a decision that may actually have been motivated by economic necessity.
Rarely, though, do I find appointments that interesting. Often, in fact, I find them uninspiring. It is understandable. At the moment, the theatre industry is particularly risk-averse – here is your weekly moan about the latest screen-to-stage adaptation, The Hunger Games – and boards are wary of rocking the boat for fear of compromising commercial integrity. That leads to sensible appointments of safe pairs of hands.
I think, though, that the un-thrilling nature of most appointments also has something to do with how narrow our concept of theatre leadership is. In Britain, we tend to assume that good directors will make good artistic directors. If someone can stage a solid Shakespeare, we think, then they can probably programme a solid season. I am not sure that is true. Some of the best artistic directors of recent times – David Lan at the Young Vic being the best example – have rarely, if ever, actually directed shows themselves.
In fact, I’d say that being able to direct is actually quite far down the list of requirements, sitting behind the abilities to curate a cohesive and compelling programme of work, to balance artistic and commercial concerns, to discover and develop talent. Put the criterion that an artistic director must be a director and myriad of interesting alternatives open up. Here, for example, are some I would love to see…
A designer as an artistic director
This is something several designers have mentioned to me in interviews over the last few years but, as far as I’m aware, it has never happened. Why could a designer not lead a venue? Instead of seasons being led by a dramatic theme, they could be led by an aesthetic theme. Instead of directors being given top billing in the credits, designers could be. Who would not want to see what a programme of work curated by Vicki Mortimer, or Chloe Lamford, or Rosanna Vize would look like?
An international artist as an artistic director
Critic Natasha Tripney – whose Substack newsletter Café Europa you should all subscribe to – wrote about this in The Stage recently, in relation to the question of who will succeed Norris at the National Theatre. “The prospect of someone from outside the UK taking the role has not really entered into the discussion, even though in Europe it is very common for people from overseas to run large organisations,” she wrote, citing Milo Rau at NTGent and Eline Arbo at ITA as examples. British theatre is famously insular, and international artists running buildings is incredibly rare. Think how great it would be, though. Think of the writers, artists and ideas they would introduce.
Someone that is not a white man as artistic director
It seems relevant to mention, in any discussion about leadership in theatre, that artistic director positions remain dominated by white men. In 2019, the most recent year for which I could find statistics, 69 per-cent of artistic directors at England’s top 50 theatres were men and 61 per-cent white men. People of colour accounted for only eight per-cent of artistic or executive director positions. Every appointment of a new artistic director is an opportunity to shift that dial a little bit. It should not be the only consideration, of course, but it should be a major one. The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar wrote about the lack of gender diversity in theatre leadership just this week, again with regard to the artistic directorship of the National Theatre. “We need someone who reflects the complexities of our world,” she wrote. “It is the nation’s theatre. It needs to be a reflection of that nation.”
A collective as artistic director
Artistic directorships are occasionally taken on by multiple people in Britain. The Royal Exchange has traditionally been run by more than one person, with Roy Alexander Weise and Bryony Shanahan sharing responsibilities until recently. Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey are the new artistic directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, too. To be honest, I think this is more a reflection of how difficult artistic director jobs have become – too stressful for one person to take on – than an expression of artistic ambition, but it is interesting nonetheless. Why stop at two people, too? Why not have a triumvirate of artists in charge? Or a company of theatremakers, all working together?
No-one as artistic director
Why do we need artistic directors anyway? As Lukowski pointed out with regards to the Manchester Royal Exchange, we should be wary of sacrificing the role of artistic director on the altar of cost-saving, but surely there are valid artistic reasons to shelve the necessity for one person permanently calling the shots, too? Why couldn’t a theatre operate with a different person or persons making decisions season by season, an ever-rotating roster of decision-makers, constantly injecting new energy into a building and bringing an influx of new artists and ideas? Anyone?
Recently, Ghanaian-British playwright Jessica Hagan noticed something about the conversations she and her friends were having.
“We weren’t chatting about being super reckless and going to wild parties,” Hagan says. “We were talking about mortgages and babies. Meeting up for dinner started taking about two months to plan, instead of a quick phone call on the day. We were drinking wine instead of cheap cocktails. I thought: ‘Where am I? What has happened to me? What has happened to my friends?’”
Simultaneously, Hagan was contemplating the disparity in maternal mortality rate between black women and white women in Britain: according to shocking statistics released in 2021, black women are four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women. The two themes coalesced in Hagan’s head, and her second play Brenda’s Got A Baby – named after 2Pac’s 1991 single – was born. It runs at the New Diorama Theatre in London throughout November.
“At first, I wanted to write one play about turning 30, and a separate play about institutionalised racism within the healthcare sector,” Hagan says. “Somehow, they just naturally merged together.”
Despite the serious subject matter, Brenda’s Got A Baby is a comedy, following a young woman, Ama, on a quest to become a mother. In that, it echoes Hagan’s debut play Queens Of Sheba, a four-handed, poetic piece about misogynoir – misogyny directed towards black women – that was inspired by a 2015 incident at Dstrkt nightclub, where several women were turned away at the door for being “too black.” Tackling tricky, traumatic topics with laughter is Hagan’s modus operandi.
“I use humour a lot to deal with harrowing realities,” Hagan says. “I do it in my personal life, too. It comes quite naturally to me. I think it makes heavy subjects palatable for audiences, who might not be receptive otherwise. Even if I was to write a Shakespearean tragedy, it would still have humour.”
“I feel a sense of responsibility to think and write about young black women who, like me, are going on a journey of getting to know themselves and finding their place in this world…”
Hagan never intended to become a playwright. Born in 1995, she grew up in London, attending both Sylvia Young Theatre School and Identity School of Acting as a child, but reading law at SOAS instead of going to drama school. She subsequently started working in arts administration, writing poetry in her spare time. “I did spoken-word poetry, because I loved grime music but couldn’t be a rapper,” she laughs.
Through Hagan’s friend Ryan Calais Cameron – founder and artistic director of acclaimed company Nouveau Riche – six of those poems became Queens Of Sheba. That plays success – it debuted at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe as a winner of the New Diorama Theatre and Underbelly’s Untapped Award, then ran at the Soho Theatre twice, toured, and even transferred to New York’s Public Theater – and the enjoyable experience Hagan had with it – she is grateful for the ongoing support of Cameron and the New Diorama’s outgoing artistic director David Byrne – led to her reconsidering her career. “After Queens Of Sheba, I thought: ‘I’m going to be a playwright and I’m going to do it well,’” she recalls.
Today, Hagan splits her time between London and Accra, Ghana, where she moved in 2018 to work for the British Council, and where she has been based ever since. “Everything that anchors me is in Ghana,” Hagan says. “My life is there. My church is there. It is where I feel safe and sane. I get down if I’m in London. There is this rat race here that is mentally damaging, especially for a creative.”
Hagan has now left her full-time job in arts administration to focus on her writing full-time. As well as Brenda’s Got A Baby, she recently completed a screenwriting residency and has several television projects cooking. “I have a lot of support from my parents, and Accra is obviously more affordable than London,” she says. “I am really fortunate to be able to pay my bills through writing now, though.”
“I feel a sense of responsibility to think and write about young black women who, like me, are going on a journey of getting to know themselves and finding their place in this world,” Hagan says. “I’d like to do that on television. I think I’ve got a couple more plays in me, too. I’d like to have a play produced in Ghana. And I’ve got one idea that I know would do well at the National Theatre, too.”
Brenda’s Got A Baby is at the New Diorama Theatre until December 2. For more information, click here.
Three shows to see next week.
Moorcroft - various, until November 4
Eilidh Loan’s propulsive, profoundly moving, and infectiously funny debut first ran at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow in 2022, and has returned for a Scottish tour with the National Theatre of Scotland this autumn. Inspired by Loan’s father’s experiences playing in various amateur football sides, Moorcroft follows a group of seven working-class teammates as they negotiate the economic challenges and toxic masculinity of 1980s Paisley, confronting death, alcoholism, homophobia and more along the way. I finally caught it at the Traverse Theatre on Wednesday and loved it. There are dates in Dundee, Cumbernauld and Glasgow to come. You can get tickets via the button below.
Nineteen Gardens - Hampstead Theatre, until December 9
This two-hander marks the UK debut of acclaimed Polish journalist, critic, novelist and playwright Magdalena Miecznicka. Directed by Hampstead Theatre associate Alice Hamilton, Nineteen Gardens stars David Sturzaker and Olivia Le Andersen as two former lovers who meet two years after their affair has ended. Miecznicka, who is now based in London, is well-known in her native Poland. You can get tickets for the first appearance of one of her plays on a British stage via the button below.
Cowbois - Royal Shakespeare Company, until November 18
Actor and writer Charlie Josephine was the creative force behind I, Joan, the pseudo-historical, non-binary reimagining of the life of Joan Of Arc that ran to acclaim at Shakespeare’s Globe last summer. They are now taking on another bastion of the bard, the Royal Shakespeare Company, with another new play, Cowbois. Co-directed by Josephine and Sean Holmes and starring Sophie Melville and Vinnie Heaven, it is billed as “a rollicking queer Western like nothing you’ve ever seen before.” A London transfer seems likely, but you can get tickets to catch it in Stratford via the button below.
Thanks for reading
That is it for this week. If you want to get in touch about anything raised in this issue - or anything at all, really - just reply to this newsletter or email me at fergusmorgan@hotmail.co.uk. Or you can find me on Twitter, where I am @FergusMorgan.
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See you next Friday.
Fergus