‘Calling for resignations is narrow-minded’
As the Old Vic tries to escape the shadow of Kevin Spacey and celebrate its bicentenary, the theatre’s two heads talk to Ben Lawrence
Its history is one of turbulence and reformation. Over 200 years, it has seen fatal stampedes in the upper gallery, been appropriated by the Temperance movement, survived bomb damage and faced bankruptcy with alarming regularity. No wonder that, on the eve of its bicentenary, Matthew Warchus, the artistic director of the Old Vic, is uncertain about the theatre’s future.
He says: “If you tell me the Old Vic is going to be turned into a block of flats, I won’t be surprised. It’s been bankrupt nine times.”
That’s not quite the response I had expected, but Warchus, 51, is under no illusion that running this major London theatre, which receives no public subsidy, is a tough gig.
“When I was interviewed for this job, I was asked whether I had a vision for the future and I said that I didn’t go around having visions for British theatres.” So he looked into the past to try to work out what it represented.
“I had always thought that the Old Vic had suffered from a bit of an identity crisis,” he says. “It’s funny. People talk about the Old Vic very lovingly. But what it represents isn’t clear. Not since the National Theatre days [the Old Vic was its original home, between 1963 and 1976) has it had a strong, defining identity.”
So what is to be done? He points to the past, to women such as the Victorian social reformer Emma Cons who reopened the theatre in the 1880s and her niece, the visionary manager Lilian Baylis, and their audacity and innovation in shaping the future of the 1,000 seat independent, not-for-profit venue. Warchus and executive director Kate Varah have acquired some of this pioneering spirit. They have introduced a £10 preview scheme to bring in new audiences, revamped the front of house to make its grand classical personality seem less “intimidating” and overseen a 10 per cent rise in audience capacity over the past three years.
Warchus talks of “a strong social mission”, which isn’t surprising considering he vowed to de-posh the Old Vic when he took over in 2015. He says: “At the time I said I had nothing against posh people going to the theatre. I just don’t want them to be the majority. And here we are using a silly word like posh. It will be politically incorrect to use that word soon. People from a privileged background deserve access to good art, but so does everyone.”
The future seems hopeful, and yet the issue of the Old Vic’s recent dark past, in relation to Warchus’s predecessor Kevin Spacey, cannot go unaddressed. Last year, after the actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making an advance on him when he was 14, further allegations of inappropriate behaviour emerged, including some from his time at the Old Vic. Members of the profession, including the Royal Court’s artistic director Vicky Featherstone, said that people had had concerns about Spacey for years. However, nobody in the Old Vic’s current administration claimed to know about these. “I am not going to comment on Vicky’s statement, other than to say the people who were
‘If you tell me the Old Vic is going to be turned into a block of flats, I won’t be surprised’
here at the time didn’t know,” confirms Varah, 41.
An investigation then took place with the Old Vic engaging external law firm Lewis Silkin. In November, Varah announced that it had uncovered 20 personal allegations of incidents relating to the Old Vic between 1995 and 2013. The theatre said it was unable to verify any of the allegations itself, though advised 14 of the 20 to go to the police.
While Scotland Yard is investigating at least three claims against Spacey, Varah confirms that the Old Vic’s investigations are over, although the helpline will remain open for a year. Does she think the speed at which the investigation was carried out and the conclusion published might have been a deterrent to people coming forward? And wasn’t their initial statement saying that there had been no complaints made during Spacey’s tenure actually false?
“No, it was exactly right,” says Varah. “That is where I feel there has been a mistake in some of the reporting, because it is absolutely true to say there were no formal complaints on record. Our investigation showed that and that is what we shared.
“What we then found was that one of the 20 first-hand accounts had been raised with a junior manager, but that wasn’t on record and we only found that out because we conducted the investigation ourselves.”
For Warchus, who had worked in a freelance capacity during the Spacey years, the unfurling crisis was painful, even as his artistic life was blossoming. He was riding high on artistic adrenalin during rehearsals for A Christmas Carol and then would walk out to find yet another media report on his theatre. “It was very weird to see the actions of an individual as an institutionalised thing and for conclusions to be drawn systemically from that,” he says. A Guardians programme has been set up in order to offer colleagues the opportunity to talk to trained staff if they have concerns about certain behaviour or work culture. Warchus talks about “healing, reform and moving forward”.
Unsurprisingly, there has been a call for heads to roll among the administration; but while Sally Greene has lost her chief executive status, now relegated to “founding trustee”, Warchus has a defensive attitude towards such blood-baying. “We are in a culture where not a day goes by when somebody’s resignation isn’t called for. ‘Are you going to apologise? Are you going to resign?’” he says. “I mean this is a narrow-minded, reactive response. I think apologies are… It’s just a word. Reform and education are much more important. We did the right thing, which was to look at how to help people and create a system of healing.”
Varah, however, is clear that the Old Vic are sorry for what could have occurred and are keen to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. As part of her refresh of the way the building is run, she is striving for gender parity in her staff; in fact, 74per cent are now female, which makes her one of the few bosses of a major institution worrying about not having enough men. “It’s my disposition to hire women, though I sometimes feel I should hire more men because it should be about parity and hearing equal voices,” she says.
Of the theatre’s successes during their tenure so far, Warchus is particularly proud of Girl from the North Country, which used the music of Bob Dylan as a framing device to tell the story of the residents of a rundown guesthouse during the Great Depression. In the immediate future, this weekend the Old Vic’s bicentenary celebrations will climax with a free street party for the local community and a cabaret night. Warchus’s proposition of the Old Vic being demolished seems unlikely for now. “It’s hard to imagine London without the Old Vic. If you take it away, something is missing,” he says.
“We need to be producing work that is entertaining and thought provoking, at a price people can afford and we need to be welcoming,” says Varah.
“If we can do those three things, we deserve to be here.”
The Old Vic Bicentenary Variety Night takes place tomorrow at 8pm. Tickets: 0844 871 7628; oldvictheatre.com