Liverpool Playhouse: A Theatre and Its City ed. by Ros Merkin (review)

Ros Merkin’s well-illustrated volume is an excellent account of the relationship that a theatre can have with its city: the book’s wealth of documentary evidence demonstrates the ways that the Liverpool Playhouse has been a cornerstone of the city of Liverpool – partly, because the theatre was owned by the people of Liverpool rather than funded by a wealthy sponsor or the city itself. While originally built as a music-hall venue in 1866, the Playhouse was Liverpool’s theatre from 1911. It closed several times over the years but, fortuitously, these closures were mostly short-lived. Now, through a merger of two of the city’s theatres (the Playhouse and the Every-man), it continues strongly, under the joint artistic directorship of Gemma Bodinetz and Deborah Aydon, who took over in 2003.

In tracing the hundred-year history of the Playhouse, Merkin’s book looks at the utopian vision with which the theatre began as well as the many disappointments it has faced. The book is structured around the changing artistic directorship, with the different chapters devoted to the events that each artistic director, respectively, confronted. Some of these directors were artists, while others were administrators. The formidable presence of Maud Carpenter, Liverpool’s Lillian Bayliss, resounds throughout the middle years of the twentieth century, while the artistic directorship of the “Gang of Four” in the early 1980s is seen as less top-down than the style that dominated at other times. The book further catalogues memories from actors, writers, photographers, and musicians, giving a thorough sense of the Playhouse through the years.

Liverpool theatre was, from the beginning, not merely a subset of London theatre or a venue for transfers from London. We gain a sense of the theatre’s determination to compete with other regional venues, such as Manchester theatre. Financial hardship was almost always a principal concern, as is typical of the theatre sector generally. At the outbreak of World War I, the theatre was successfully run as a commonwealth for two years: all employees, regardless of task, accepted a minimum wage for two years (at half the normal rate), and then any more money that was brought into the company was shared equally at the end of the season. The theatres were full for these two years, although the system was too difficult to maintain throughout the entire war. World War II was a different matter: until 1942, the theatre remained closed, with air raids, bombing, and illness preoccupying Liverpool. In 1942, however, theatre returned to Liverpool, through the move of London’s bombed Old Vic to Liverpool, where they stayed until 1946.

The book outlines the perennial problem of programming plays to make a profit. The answer to this dilemma shifts significantly over time to include revues, rock-and-roll shows, the latest fare from London, overseas work, classics, Chekhov, new theatre, and so forth. The changes in playwriting – in a particularly important century for the development of theatre – become clear. Liverpool Playhouse covers the (at times) quite radical repertoire across one-hundred years. Over the years, keeping the venue open has necessitated decisions to reshape the vision of the Playhouse to appeal to more and different audiences. Following the war, the Playhouse looked to become what John Fernald termed the National Theatre of the North or even a version of the Berliner Ensemble or the Moscow Art Theatre. The merger that produced the theatre in its current form is yet another example of seeking the most strategic means to provide Liverpool with a theatre culture, one that would do more than just break even.

The list of famous artists who worked in the Liverpool Theatre in various capacities (whether briefly or for extended periods) is very long, including Rachel Kempson, Michael Redgrave, Beryl Bainbridge, Patricia Routledge, Rita Tushingham, and Patrick Stewart. Many others passed through in a single play or season.

This book is a compilation of documents from the archives...