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Associates In, Loft Out, Costs Cut at Hytner NationalDate: 23 January 2003
At the press conference held today to announce the National's first season under Nicholas Hytner (See today's other News for full programming details), the artistic director-designate outlined a number of changes in policy and philosophy that will set his regime apart from that of incumbent Trevor Nunn, who he takes over from in April.
Price Reductions
Wielding the most immediate impact is Hytner's decision to drastically reduce ticket prices. For the first six months of his reign, two-thirds of the 1,100 seats in the NT Olivier (the largest of the three auditoria) will be slashed to just £10 (less than a third the cost of normal top-price tickets), with the other third fixed at £25. Further, prices in the NT Cottesloe, which will mount only new work, will be permanently reduced to £10, £15 and £25.
The Olivier £10 season aims to lure new audiences into a theatregoing habit and to encourage existing theatregoers to come to the National more often. Hytner admits that the venture is highly experimental and will require corporate sponsorship for long-term viability. However, according to the NT's calculations, "If we play to capacity, we'd make as much at the box office as we normally budget for (65% capacity) at full-price." And, if near-capacity is achieved in the first six months, "it would make sense for us to try and make it a permanent part of our operation."
The £10 season - comprising four productions run in repertory - will also be part-funded out of savings on set design. "I've asked a group of the English-speaking world's leading actors, directors and designers to collaborate on a bold new way of producing these plays which has made it possible to rethink our ticket prices." In other words, the Olivier will be "stripped bare" to become a space for "metaphor" where, Hytner believes, "what you lose in visual extravagance, you gain in conceptual boldness."
Advisory Associates
The group that has advised on the Olivier rethink has also been drafted in on a permanent basis to provide input on other directions the National takes. Unlike Nunn, who was criticised for doing without associate directors, Hytner has appointed the multi award-winning Howard Davies as his sole holder of that position, alongside the larger group of associates.
Amongst the associates currently on board are: actors Simon Russell Beale, Alex Jennings, Adrian Lester and Helen Mirren; directors Edward Hall, Phyllida Lloyd, Katie Mitchell and Cheek by Jowl's Declan Donnellan; designers Alison Chitty, Jonathan Dove, Bob Crowley and Mark Henderson; and playwrights Patrick Marber and Mark Ravenhill. Hytner expects this group to expand over time.
Demise of the Lyttelton Loft
While the Olivier will undergo changes, the 900-seat Lyttelton will not - at least not to the extent of last year's five-month Transformation season, which saw the main stage reconfigured and a 100-seat Loft studio created in the adjoining foyer space. This is in spite of the fact that, at the time of the Transformation launch (See News, 18 Mar 2002 & 8 Aug 2001), one of the benefits of the £1.5 million refit design was said to be that it could be packed up, stored and used again.
"It was what it was," said Hytner at today's event, before adding, "I'm sure there will be further temporary interventions of that kind.... But I have no plans to revive the Loft."
When pressed as to why he was abandoning Transformation as a concept, he explained, "There is stuff that the National can do that other theatres cannot … there are lots of great, tiny studio spaces all over London already." Instead, he maintains that "one of my jobs here is to encourage writers and directors of all kinds to think ambitiously, to develop work that is ambitious in scope."
New Musical Definitions
Also unlike his predecessor, Hytner will shy away from mounting big-budget revivals of American musicals. He resists the idea that musical theatre is confined to Broadway hits "circa 1940 to 1965" and aims to concentrate instead on developing new kinds of musicals that blur the lines between dance, opera and drama, such as the scheduled fully-staged premiere of Jerry Springer - The Opera, which will be the first new opera ever mounted at the National.
"I want to redefine what we mean by musical drama," Hytner explained. "Somewhere along the line it became a dirty word, and I want to clean it up again." Rather than reinterpretations of 20th-century American works, he suggested possible projects as a contemporary equivalent of a French operetta or a new show by Richard Thomas, one of Jerry Springer's co-creators. And "we will never do a musical adaptation of a novel by Thomas Hardy, I promise."
For full programming details of Hytner's opening season, click here.
- by Terri Paddock
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