BP News

Artistic Director's Slot

I suppose with the word in my title I'm occasionally expected to think about Art with a capital 'A' and more essentially - what it is. I mean, Damien Hirst's diamond-encrusted skull is or isn't Art depending on who you listen to. It is Art because it's an item created by an artist but it isn't because his intention, according to these critics, was to create an item to be bought for investment rather than for enjoyment. Ho-hum, the arguments about Art are as old as culture itself I suppose. After all, that's precisely what Aristotle was writing about in his Poetics wherein he defined for two millennia what was or wasn't Art. Well since his overthrow things have been, shall we say, more fluid especially in these post-modern times.

The Arty thing has been on my mind because this is the time we pick the programme for next season. To demystify the process: small conclave sits and considers what the Year ahead should probably look like. Do we go for a season of Art or of popular culture? Can it be Art and popular culture? Shakespeare spans both like the colossus he is but anyone else? We have, after all, two Shakespeare's coming up this summer and that might be enough Shakespeare for a while. Although Twelfth Night is always popular…No think. So - popular - okay: er The Graduate, that's got a lot going for it being a well-known film as well as the play in which Kathleen Turner famously went in the buff. Actually it's a great script, so it is Art and it would be popular too. Great - that looks good. Erm…comedy, comedy? Are You Being Served?? No, that's a sitcom too far for my money. Too many nudge-nudge, wink-wink double entendres to be classic and it all looks and sounds terribly past its sell-by date. So - comedy….Boeing-Boeing is doing good business at the moment but then it might tour after its London run and we won't get the rights. And so it goes on….

I was thinking of Art too with its capital 'A', because someone had opined to me that the recent Fringe offering, the Helen of Troy play, definitely wasn't art because it was full of swearing. 'Why do modern plays need to use that language..?' they wailed. Well, I'm not sure that a few F-words bars a piece from being called Art, although you'd probably would have Aristotle on your side for saying so. I think it's the old thing about Art being ennobling. If you see Art as pointing us towards higher thoughts then a few choice swear words obviously exclude it from the canon of High Art. But why should Art aspire to show us lofty ideals? A good play is one that takes us on an emotional journey and that might be either a comic one or a tragic one, if we stick with the classical distinctions. To me it's always the journey that matters. If I enjoy the journey then its good art for me, whether it's an episode of Desperate Housewives on TV or something from the doom-laden pen of Sarah Kane, like Blasted. Sometimes that journey is excitingly hazardous as in Helen of Troy, with rough language and uncomfortable issues at the heart of it, and we do recognise that it's not everyone's cup of drama, as John Gardiner used to say.

Don't worry though, the 'strong plays' will normally find their natural berth in the Studio rather the Main House. In the Main House we look for popular Art, the plays can be a bit steamy yes, but never too controversial. And in any case this year we need to raise as much money as we can for the Studio extension appeal. So - where was I? Ah yes - a good comedy to open the season…….