Interesting (if old) Interview

With Young Vic artistic director David Lan.  It's a few years old, but it can be found at the Guardian's website. Lan was an actor, and then a writer (for American readers, he co-wrote Mouthfull of Birds with Caryl Churchill) and turned to directing late.  So he has a rather interesting perspective.  Here's a section I thought worth clipping:

Is there anything we're particularly good/bad at in this country? What do you think are the industry's real strengths and weaknesses, compared with theatre elsewhere? We're fantastically good at acting and designing and production management. We're not very good at writing any more. We have some brilliant directors but no means by which directors can learn from each other. We're far more interested in European and Asian theatre than we used to be which is good. We're bad at continuity. We're always starting again with few lessons learnt.

How could British theatre be stronger? What would make your work easier/more rewarding?  I'm out of sympathy with the taken for granted division between so-called physical and text-based theatre. Speech is movement and all theatre is movement in space, for the eye, for the ear, for the brain and for the heart. The Royal Court idea that the writer is key is obviously wrong - the writer is key in novels and poems. The whole point about the theatre is that it starts at the moment that the actor intervenes and, with any luck, starts to sing. So cross fertilisation is good, collaboration is good, research is good, young people are good, singing is good, fun is good, debate is good, money is good - intelligence, energy and pleasure.

Anyway, just thought I'd toss that into the ring.  Your thoughts?

Comments

[David Moore]

An interesting juxtaposition of statements:

"We're not very good at writing any more."

-- and --

"The Royal Court idea that the writer is key is obviously wrong..."

Of course, I think cross-fertilization is fantastic and necessary and all that -- in theory and in practice. But I think I'll spend some time working out how he synthesizes these two statements. Maybe I'll read the whole article! (There's a thought.)

[David Moore]

Oh, one more thought:

The question I always ask myself, as a playwright, is this:

Am I a writer? Or a storyteller?

[Travis Bedard]

Isaac,

Thanks for posting this article.
Slightly oblique response over here:
http://frawst.blogspot.com/2007/06/institutional-memory.html