Urban vs rural theatre in the Westcountry. Where's the conflict?

How important is place? After the Arts Council Theatre in Exeter event on Saturday 23rd July 2011 I've been thinking more and more about rural and urban theatre.

I was lucky enough to have a rehearsed reading recently at the New Theatre in Exeter of my first play Unchosen. It was fascinating because the play was specially written to be played out of doors. The stage directions show that it should be seen at that special time of day when the sun disappears and each of us, if we pay it mind, gets that little tingle in the spine that registers the passing of another day. I envisaged moths getting caught in footlights and random happenings of cloud and wind that could be incorporated into the performance. The script shows that some of the players should have a personal light source that gradually becomes apparent to the audience as an aura, as the sun dips.

Yet, of course, the players and director at the reading made it work indoors, on stage with no auras because that's their business. Recreating the tingle in the spine that the natural landscape gives us, right there, through expression and performance. Beautiful.

So it's left me confused. I still believe Unchosen is an outdoor piece, deeply rooted in my love of Devon's prehistoric landscape but the truth is theatre can be created anywhere. That's its strength and its purpose. It belongs to the theatres in the city of Exeter. To Cygnet for the excellence in training, to The Bike Shed for exciting and innovative new work and it belongs to  Creative Cow whose touring brand stands always for quality.

We have it all here right now in the urban and rural landscapes of the Westcountry and there is nowhere I would rather be.

(Photo - view of Peak Hill from Woodbury Iron Age Hill Fort, Devon)

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