Stay at home theatre for the luxury drama experience
131 views · Published 20 November 2018 · 6:16 · Indexed 26 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(15 Nov 2018) LEADIN: A London new theatre company is promising you can always enjoy the best seats in the house. They'll set up in the kitchen, lounge, or even your hotel room. In fact theatre hasn't been this intimate since Elizabeth the first invited Shakespeare into her chambers. STORYLINE: Going on with the show in London's theatreland is an expensive business. Just maintaining some of these historic buildings can run into hundreds of thousands of British pounds a year. London's theatres are costly affairs. They are expensive real estate and attract the most prestigious directors and actors which push up overheads. New actors breaking into the field face an uphill challenge, which is why many are are seeking alternative methods of finding employment Michael Spencer a course leader from Central St. Martin's University of the Arts says it's a tough environment for new students to find work. He says: "It's extremely difficult. You only have to look at the figures of the number of actors working at any one time it's tiny, which is why we think it's very important to diversify and use those skills in perhaps different ways and have been traditional, by which I'm talking about plays in theatres." It's not surprising then that graduating actors are looking for new ways to be employed. Here in a fashionable Chelsea home, pre theatre drinks are being poured and the discussion is all about the evening's entertainment. The select audience of seven are about to enjoy a short comic play from the 1930s by British playwright Noel Coward. It's a gentle satire of the mannerisms and idiosyncrasies of British upper class colonialists during the two world wars. At one point in the play the character of Commander Gilpin cries: "You might have warned me that a load of colonial strangers were coming trumpeting in the house!" The production is being put on by a relatively new company called Revels In Hand, founded by three Cambridge graduates who discovered their taste for drama in the Cambridge Footlights, the University's well known theatre company. Its alumni include photographer Cecil Beaton, and actors John Cleese, Michael Frayn, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry. At one point it even included Prince Charles, heir to the British throne. It is with that pedigree that Revels In Hand are aiming themselves squarely at what they see is the bespoke, or luxury theatre market. They say they'll perform in virtually any place, at any time and anywhere in the world, transforming the space around them into an intimate theatre. They've already secured a regular slot at London's Shard. The company is confident it's secured a niche in a very crowded market. "There is the luxury market. So people who entertain a lot, who might do this just because they can on a Tuesday night because they want to entertain their friends, they have big houses and they love their houses, and they love their friends and they have the money to do it. There's also special events. So for people who are getting married, or people who are celebrating a big anniversary. So they've saved money and they want to do something really special and memorable for an event, a big event, whatever that might be. And then the other market is the corporate market because we love going into businesses and putting a smile on the staff's faces, doing staff and client interaction. So that's really really fun market for us as well," says Melanie Fullbrook one of the founding members. After Cambridge, Eaton went to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b9e30e0edef68773b099ff658636cfd2
