As Peter Mitchelson recovers from his interview at the B.B.C. Merseyside studios on Hanover Street, it’s possible to understand how much the Shiny New Theatre Festival means to him. Watching his through the glass giving answers to the radio presenter about the ten day festival at the Lantern Theatre on Blundell Street only makes you admire him more for what he does for all the acts that are taking their performances to the theatre and trusting Peter with a little piece of their souls.
Mindful that he has so much on with making the festival the success it deserves to be, I let him catch his breath and we talk of other things until he visibly relaxes and is ready to go again. Such is the young man’s energy that really doesn’t take a lot of time.
This is the second successive year now that Shiny New Theatre has made its way down to The Lantern Theatre, this must be very exciting for you?
“Oh yes, it’s the second year and hopefully it is bigger and better than ever. We have doubled the length of the event, last year it was five days and this year it is ten and we will still have three shows on every day and we are trying to showcase a lot of Liverpool’s talent and also give them a chance to preview their work in their hometown before they take it off to the Edinburgh Fringe and hopeful become the successful rock-stars of theatre.”
You have some acts that are returning as well, David Alnwick for example and who isn’t a fan of his work.
“(laughs) I think David Alnwick is a big fan of his work as well. He is back with his magic show Totally Ninja. Pretty much everybody who did last year has returned with a new show or an update of something they have done previously. Last year the line-up included David with his magic show which was so well received and a really good show with some amazing tricks, he is back as you say with some new stand up pieces and new material. We have Dave Griffiths who wrote Saving Grace for the festival last year and he has written a new show and it’s cool to have him back; Jollyboat return with some new songs and new material. John McGuire who wrote Weave, an amazing play, returns with something else called Pornovision and is directed by Jennifer Bea and in which stars both Jennifer and John.”
It has to be asked, why do you do this? Why do you put yourself through the stress of putting on new productions?
“Well I because I guess I am doing all these other festivals around the country and trying to make a name for myself, the young director with a small company. I am 24 years old and I have got to get out there and get my work seen, although I do look older as I try to keep my beard looking a bit dishevelled (laughs). However it is hard for young acts to be taken seriously, booking venues is expensive, marketing is really difficult and all these things that get in the way of putting on theatre and the huge obstacles that come between us. I worked out a deal with the Lantern to get the venue as cheap as possible, if you go down any of the other Fringe festivals and get a forty-seated room you would be paying so much to the box office and a big guarantee as well; you probably won’t make any return.
Ten per cent may make the guarantee and may profit a little bit but if you have five people in a show and stage manager and the theatre takes say 40 per cent…they though are also in the position of needing to make money as well. It is just a really difficult situation. I think in Liverpool we have some really talented people that can unify behind a scene it can make us all so much stronger and legitimise what we are doing on the fringe and get taken seriously that is the idea behind it.”
One of the acts on show is someone who you have worked with quite recently, the wonderful Laura-Kate Barrow from Ladyparts Theatre.
“Yes Ladyparts is one of the most fun things I have done recently in a very stressful few months with the marketing and this, that and the other. I get worried about tickets sales and whether we can get anyone into review the shows and even directing three shows and on two of them I am doing the stage management and lighting because we have to keep the costs down so we can take the shows on the road. That’s the honest problem that we have to deal with. So with that in mind it was great to work on a show for a day.
The concept behind it is Ladyparts Theatre, the company she runs and she is a really great writer, there is a lot of great female actors out there in Liverpool but not a lot of main parts for women so she writes a lot of scripts for women in mind. This was a showcase of writers who would write something in a day and then directors would put together a show in a day, although it was less than a day…I was told a day (laughs). I got given the script at 11 am on the Sunday, the day the show was on, we were then getting to the venue for about 4pm and then the shows were on at 5pm and again at 7. We had about four hours of rehearsal. I was told that they were about 10 minutes long and then we saw we had a 13 page script and that’s a lot for an actor to learn in such a short space of time (laughs). It was great fun to do and was nice not to have to worry about it later on. It felt like a kick back to university in which you are doing a project or doing it for the actual enjoyment of it. A fantastic experience.”
In one minute tell people why they should come along to Shiny New Theatre at the Lantern Theatre?
“They should come so I don’t go broke (laughs) They should come to the festival because they need to support the Fringe scene in Liverpool or the artists could end up going somewhere else. It’s true, if we can’t make the thing successful here why would they stay here and if there is no opportunities do we all have to go to London? I don’t want to do that and go through a big cheese grater and fight with all the trendy people. A new show anywhere might be cast in London, rehearsed in London and a local actor put in at the last minute and then we find large theatre companies bringing our culture to us from London. If we aren’t careful all our Liverpool writers will leave, all the actors will leave because there are no opportunities here.
This is why I am doing this so we can make our own opportunities and unfortunately we are a bit behind Manchester as they have a great Fringe scene, they have created something in their 24/7 festival that is organically grown and there is an audience for the 24/7 festival rather than for the individual companies in which you have to fight with others for things. You will also be entertained, they are very entertaining shows, there is the political subtext to some of them, some of them are kind of serious. I am going to big up The Brief Afterlife of Reginald Tanner is a comedy drama about a man resurrected on the N.H.S. but then who has to deal with M.P.s getting involved and asking if he was worth bringing back, it is then about a doctor trying to sell this person they have bought back to life to the public. A very silly play but with some incredibly serious issues involved.
Ian D. Hall