‘Insular’ British theatre told to find inspiration further afield

BRITISH theatre is too “insular” and overly focused on Western plays, according to Nicholas Hytner, a former director of the National Theatre.

Hytner said theatregoers are well served with Irish and North American playwrights, but that theatre must look further afield.

“I think our theatre tradition is pretty insular,” he said. His former employer, the National Theatre, “has a way to go in looking at the theatre outside the Western tradition”.

According to Hytner, “anything that can be done to show our audiences what kind of theatre is being made outside of Europe and North America is very interesting and very exciting.

“There is interesting work going on in Africa and South America. We know about Irish and American plays but we are not great on the works of continental Europe.”

He praised the National, where he was artistic director for more than a decade, saying: “I think it is very exciting to see what the National Theatre has been doing – [they are ] expanding the repertoire, and they have slowly and quite excitingly decided that we have these new ideas, which is always going to happen every 10 years.

“You can’t stay in charge of one of these great theatres for much longer than 10 years because you’ve got to let other people have a go.”

However, Hytner’s first season at his new theatre company is not overflowing with the work of African and South American playwrights. The Bridge Theatre will open later this year with

Julius Caesar and a comedy from Richard Bean, writer of the hugely successful One Man, Two Guvnors.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has said he feared for British theatre because it was targeted at a white population. He said: “I … believe that the stage needs to reflect the diversity of the UK population or it risks becoming sidelined.”