- 'One of the few theatres in England who really care about dramatists':New Writing at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent in the 1960s
The Victoria Theatre (the Vic) in Stoke-on-Trent garnered an international reputation for its innovative documentary theatre in the 1960s and 70s, pioneered by artistic director, Peter Cheeseman.1 Less recognised, however, is the theatre's status as a writers' theatre, despite its creation of the resident playwright position in 1966 and its role in developing prominent writers such as Peter Terson, C. G. Bond, Bill Morrison and Alan Plater. In this essay I will explore the importance of new writing in Stephen Joseph's Studio Theatre Ltd, the founding company of the Victoria Theatre, and Cheeseman's development of this policy to introduce new writers to the company, throughout the 1960s.2 The second half of the essay will focus particularly on Peter Terson, as the theatre's first resident playwright (1966-7), his working methods and his relationship with the Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent.
For Joseph, founder of Studio Theatre Ltd and pioneer of theatre-in-theround, new writing was a cornerstone of his artistic policy, as fundamental to his philosophy as the presentation of plays in-the-round. Because of the company's limited funds, many members of Studio Theatre Ltd became multi-taskers working as actors, directors, stage-managers and where necessary, as writers. David Campton, an original member of Joseph's company, asserts: [End Page 102]
In its heyday the Joseph company was staging more new plays per year than the Royal Court. After all, I doubt if the Royal Court importuned its writers with "We need a farce to round out the Summer Season" or "An adaptation of 'David Copperfield' in time for the Christmas tour, please." In those days I turned out farces, melodramas and domestic comedies to order.
(Campton)
Figures who did not class themselves as writers when they joined the company were often encouraged to write new plays in order to advance the company's work. Alan Ayckbourn, who had been taken on as Assistant Stage Manager in 1957, remembers how he was encouraged into writing by Joseph:
[Joseph] said to me: "If you want a better part, you'd better write one for yourself. Write a play, I'll do it. If it's any good." And I said: "Fine." And he said: "Write yourself a main part"–which was actually a very shrewd remark, because presumably, if the play had not worked at all there was no way I as an actor was going to risk my neck in it.
(Watson and Ayckbourn 48)
Ayckbourn was one of a number of new writers who premiered their new work with Studio Theatre; Terry Lane in his biography of Stephen Joseph identified seven successful writers whose theatre work was debuted by him: Robert Bolt, James Saunders, Joan Macalpine, Richard Gill, Mike Stott, Alan Ayckbourn and David Campton (Lane 220) and Paul Elsam in his more recent history, adds Harold Pinter and Alan Plater to the already impressive list (66). Campton, writing in the 1970s, recognised the wealth of material to which new writers were exposed as part of the company:
I acted, I directed, I relieved the Box Office Manager, I gave out programmes, served coffee, swept the stage, paid the wages, and wrote chatty paragraphs about the theatre for the local press. If you wonder what that had to do with playwriting, imagine sharing a dressing-room with actors after a scene in which all the jokes have ended in dull thuds on the floor; imagine trying to persuade doubting holiday-makers that 50p is better spent on your play than at 'Razzle' on the pier–it's an education.
(Campton)
Whilst this challenging environment might have been an inspiring training ground for new writers, for Joseph it made it increasingly difficult to pursue new work that he felt would have been fitting for the company. In a private letter, Joseph bemoaned the state of regional theatre: [End Page 103]
Agents … very seldom allow us to do plays that have any chance at all … it is a sad thing but...