25 replies to this topic

[Jan Brock]

The RSC seems to bring a lot of their stuff over to the States these days, as The Winter's Tale and Pericles also went over there. Is this done because they can't transfer all the productions that they would like to London? Not that Pericles needed to be transferred anywhere, but The Winter's Tale certainly merited a London slot.

I was not aware of that either. So the only place Winters Tale/Pericles was seen other than Stratford was in USA ? Amazing. That is getting close to treating their UK audiences with contempt. Maybe they have to do this (USA transfer) to compensate the leading actors for the fact their work won't be seen in London (ie. as a "showcase" to try and get them film/TV work).

So, the result was this: in the year-long complete works festival, of those productions staged by the RSC, the same number transferred to USA as transferred to London. The Arts Council needs to look at this and adjust their subsidy accordingly.

(PS: I thought Pericles far superior to Winters Tale).

[josh]

I was not aware of that either. So the only place Winters Tale/Pericles was seen other than Stratford was in USA ? Amazing. That is getting close to treating their UK audiences with contempt. Maybe they have to do this (USA transfer) to compensate the leading actors for the fact their work won't be seen in London (ie. as a "showcase" to try and get them film/TV work).

You are so cynical Jan!
I doubt that the actors are treating the USA residence as much of a TV/film showcase, seeing as the place they visited in the USA was none other than Davidson College, North Carolina!

[Jan Brock]

You are so cynical Jan!
I doubt that the actors are treating the USA residence as much of a TV/film showcase, seeing as the place they visited in the USA was none other than Davidson College, North Carolina!

Yes, you are right, the situation is more complicated than I thought - in fact this is the fourth time in as many years that the RSC have staged productions at this University campus (they were there for a month this time). They are very lucky aren't they ! I wonder how many UK universities have hosted RSC during this period ? "None" seems a good guess. Of course it is all to do with money - they get paid to go there, unlike London where they have to share profits with a commercial producer.

Does this strike anyone else as a peculiar situation ?

[musicals fan]

This endless debate on transfers is entirely attributable to the disastrous decision to leave the Barbican a few years ago.  There seem to be people within the RSC -management or artistic- who do not seem to want to come to London as they did in the past.  The Mayor of London, whom I otherwise regard with complete contempt, at least threatened the RSC some while back to raise the question of the Arts council subsidy - which was intended to enable the company to be seen by as big an audience as possible,which means coming to London.
Now we never know which productions might or might not be coming to London or where they might be performed,except through combing through masses of information and watching sites such as this one.
The RSC is a company with a national remit and it should not be allowed to do deals with American universities at the expense of the UK taxpayers who put up substantial sums, without which the company would not exist.

[Jenny_tyr]

So, the result was this: in the year-long complete works festival, of those productions staged by the RSC, the same number transferred to USA as transferred to London. The Arts Council needs to look at this and adjust their subsidy accordingly.

Just out of curiosity; how big a percentage of the RSC's budget comes from the Arts Council? I can't believe that it's a huge percentage of their money, nor can it be for the NT, judging by their ticket prices. You often have to pay over 40 pounds for a good ticket at both those companies, and I know of several government subsidized theatres abroad where the top ticket prices are typically no more than 20 or 22 pounds. If the grant isn't their main source of income I wonder what sort of demands the Arts Council can really make.

Speaking about the RSC, just what are they planning for the next London season? And when will that be? There's nothing about it on the RSC site, nothing on the Delfont Mackintosh site and no word on this anywhere. Does anybody know? Lear is scheduled to play Stratford and then tour until the end of October, so that's not coming to London anytime soon; the Penelopiad doesn't open in Stratford until late July, and it's anybody’s guess if that will be transferred; the production of Midsummer Night's Dream at the Swan is a visiting one, so cross that one out; Macbett sounds like an outside bet for transferring; Richard II might be a possibility, but doesn't open until July, so who knows. If they're not transferring Coriolanus, then what are they planning to bring to London? Or is there just going to be a long RSC absence from there?

[Jan Brock]

My information may be a little out of date but I think approx 40-50% of their budget comes from Arts Council.

On transfers - they have stated that King Lear/Seagull will play in London, and also that the complete Histories cycle will transfer to London.

One wonders what venue will be used.

[David]

How the RSC income breaks down. Jan was about right.

[Jenny_tyr]

Thanks for that info David, I had no idea that they got more money from the grant than from the box office. I guess the Arts Council would have perfectly valid reasons for objecting to them not making their productions available to more people by bringing them to London. I suppose Newcastle might be handy if you live in the region, but it's a bit out of the way when you don't. I finally decided that I have to see this production again, so I'm going to Newcastle next month, which will be interesting enough, as I think that I was about seven years old the last time I was there. I wonder what the nightlife is like, does anyone have any tips for places to go, other than the theatre I mean?

[Jenny_tyr]

In the end I decided to head over to Newcastle to see this production again, so I've basically been offline for the last few days and absent from my post as moderator of this board (I did notify admin about this beforehand, in case you're wondering). Mea culpa, but I'm back now and ready to deal with the recurring spammers with all due haste. When I thought about making the trip over to England to see this production again, the thing that I could use to rationalize this to myself was the post-performance talk that was advertised for Friday the 18th, so I got myself a ticket for both Friday and Saturday, as it seemed a shame not to see this more than one more time when I was going to take the trouble to go there in the first place.

To my utter amazement, and that of a fair number of other irate theatregoers, that post-performance talk never happened. The FOH staff knew nothing about it, but soon came back with the news that it had been cancelled. What?!? I went back on Saturday to find out what had happened and why, and all I got was the theatre and the RSC blaming oneanother for this, with both claiming that it was the other party that had cancelled the talk and not them. The last word from the theatre was that this was an "oversight" by the RSC, and since I left my contact information to the woman who represented the RSC I look forward to having *someone* have the balls to stand up and say "sorry, we screwed up" and not say that it was all someone else's fault. I would strongly suggest that anyone who is going to the post-performance talks that are advertised for Lear (30 June) and The Seagull (6 July) make sure that *both* the Theatre Royal and the RSC are signed up to those talks, or else you might end up being similarly disappointed.

//Jenny

[Jenny_tyr]

I was not aware that this production was going to USA. So, it will be seen in USA but not in London - and people who don't contribute a penny to RSC's subsidy get favoured. And before anyone jumps in to say this is a London-centric view, I was equally irritated by the fact that "The Tamer Tamed" couldn't play in Newcastle because the set had already been crated up to take to USA.

And as it turns out, this production is now going to Madrid, so that's yet another place outside the UK that'll get to see this.

//Jenny