Theatre Producers

THE HAYMARKET THEATRE

The Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke is a 400-seat regional producing house. About half of their work is home-produced (5 or 6 plays a year). The other half of is made up of suitable tours and some local amateur companies. The company welcome co-productions and are currently in discussion with a range of difference producers, both from the subsidised and the commercial sectors.

New writing is at the heart of their Artistic Policy, and they would expect to present a significant proportion of new work over the next five years. There are, however, constraints on what The Haymarket can do in 2005 and 2006. They have inherited a significant deficit which must be paid off in the next two years. The company have plans for a second, smaller space, but till they get it, they have to gear their new writing to a 400 seat theatre. The Haymarket cannot afford to play to empty houses (even if they didn’t have to pay off the deficit), nor do they believe that they should. The theatre needs new writing, the region needs new writing, but the company must present work that will attract audiences, and preferably interest from London critics, agents and – most of all – actors. The Haymarket believe that the right new play will attract a starry cast, and that the cast will sell the seats and pull the critics.

So in 2006 The Haymarket have two world premieres. 3-1-6, a distinctive and innovative thriller by Euan Rose, opens on 24th February. Blue on Blue, a major piece of new writing by Derek Lister, is about embedded journalists in the Iraqi desert, (but no flag-waving).

In both cases the company have taken an existing complete script, and commissioned it for development. The company would expect this to be their usual commissioning process for the time being. It is highly unlikely that they would commission an original play from an idea or a synopsis. The Haymarket need to see achievement in a full draft, and be sure that they can attract a cast, or an audience.

One exception might be the adaptation, which at least guarantees some familiarity for potential audiences. The company regularly commission new scripts for their Christmas productions – The Canterville Ghost from Shaun Prendergast in 2004/5 and The Wind in the Willows from Philip Goulding (though based on an existing script) for 2005/6. The House Style at the Haymarket is for actor-musicians performing acoustically – no impersonal high-volume radio-miking allowed.

With very limited resources (not enough people, not enough money, never enough time) the company can’t get heavily involved in process and development work at the moment, and even find it difficult to deal as helpfully as they would like with all the new plays they receive. One resource they do have is that John Adams, their Artistic Director, is co-founder of Paines Plough, and has a lot of experience of New Writing which he is willing to share and exploit.

Longer-term (2007 and beyond) the company would hope to build on our current capabilities. Meanwhile submissions of new writing, or ideas for new writing for the Haymarket, could take the form of a synopsis, extracts or a full script. The company will deal with them when they can.

www.haymarket.org.uk