Sarah Crompton: The richness and inclusivity celebrated by the Olivier Awards is at risk as never before
So there we go then. With glitz, glamour and big frocks, the Olivier Awards comes to its conclusion, though I am not sure how many general conclusions we can draw from the prizes given.
The huge success of My Neighbour Totoro (six out of the nine awards for which it was nominated, including best entertainment and best director) indicates that you can’t go far wrong with a cleverly-achieved, heart-warming show based on a much-loved film. It’s going to go on being a money-spinner and a spirits-lifter when it returns to the Barbican in the autumn and is likely to have a life long after that.
But if that shows that audiences are seeking entertainment, the success of Rebecca Frecknall’s invigorating revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, which took the prize for best revival, reveals a hunger for revisiting classic plays (something the West End is notably short of at present.) It helps, of course, if they star man of the moment Paul Mescal (best actor) and it was lovely to see Anjana Vasan, so luminous as Stella, take home the best supporting actress award. The two awards for Daniel Fish’s dark-hued revival of Oklahoma! also tugged in that more serious direction.
But there was another underlying theme to the night, perhaps best exemplified in Chris Bush’s stirring speech when Standing at the Sky’s Edge took the Olivier for best new musical. “We are all here,” she said, “Because art has changed our lives in some ways. But making art that changes lives isn’t enough. We have to make sure that that art is available and accessible to every single person who wants to see it.
“The world is only changed by the stories that are told about it, by the stories that we tell, and the stories that are told about us and if we can’t find ourselves in those stories, if we don’t know where to look for them, if we can’t participate in their telling, we are not just being denied access to art, we are being denied access to the world and we might start to think that the world isn’t for us. And it is, it is. The world is for all of us.”
It was echoed too in Jodie Comer’s rallying cry when she picked up her Olivier as best actress for her performance as a lawyer who comes to experience the reality of sexual assault in Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie. That truly extraordinary monologue marked Comer’s West End debut, and it was the culmination of a journey from a suburb in Liverpool to stardom. “To any kids who haven’t been to drama school, who can’t afford to go, have been rejected – don’t let anyone tell you it’s impossible.”
Lifetime achievement award winner Derek Jacobi added another layer to the anxiety, when he talked about his fear that rising ticket prices are cutting people off from their access to theatre, by making them think it is not for them.
It’s true that awards ceremonies always promote a great deal of chatter about art being for everyone and its capacity to transform lives. Nevertheless, it seems to me that there is a real urgency about Bush’s comments this year. Theatre really is in peril, particularly in the regions.
Standing at the Sky’s Edge, with music by Richard Hawley and set on the Park Hill estate in Sheffield represents two things that are currently under serious threat. Firstly, it is mainly the product of the subsidised sector (firstly the Sheffield Crucible, then the National Theatre) though with some commercial support. Secondly, it is an insight into a world rarely seen on stage, where ordinary people in low-paying jobs are trying to make their way through life. It deals with issues of factory closures, poverty, immigration, prejudice, and gentrification while all the time telling stories that are relatable to many in its audience.
It is this ability to make work about everyone and for everyone that is under greater threat than it has ever been this year. The Olivier Awards fell in the week that the Oldham Coliseum closed after it had had its entire Arts Council subsidy of £1.8 million (over three years) withdrawn as part of the government’s ill-thought-through policy of levelling up.
On Saturday, the actor Christopher Eccleston talked passionately about the closure on BBC Radio Four. He said the theatre had been a “beacon” for actors in the Greater Manchester region. “If you grow up in the north-west, you don’t feel culture and the arts belong to you. You don’t believe if you come from a council estate you can be an actor, a poet, or painter.”
This sense of not belonging in the arts and the arts not belonging to you feels part of a deliberate campaign of marginalising this country’s artistic output, of saying that the arts don’t matter – unless you happen to be able to pay for them. It flies directly in the face of the vision, which used to be accepted by all our politicians, whatever their party, that the arts and culture are a means of access and integration, that they help you understand the world and be a better citizen within it.
One of the many dangerous legacies of the last 13 years of Conservative government is that this view has been undermined. The arts are now seen as an attractive add on, something you can enjoy if you have the cash, but not an essential ingredient in a good society. It’s not just the Oldham Coliseum that is threatened by this attitude, but every theatre in the country as they struggle to survive amidst a cost-of-living crisis.
The richness and inclusivity celebrated by the Olivier Awards is at risk as never before, and once it vanishes, it will be hard to rebuild. Eccleston declared himself ready to fight for theatre in the North-west; Bush echoed the rallying cry. It is one to which we should all respond.
