The sheer special liveness of theatre will be key to Anna Farthing’s time as CEO at Portsmouth’s New Theatre Royal.
Anna, who took up her role in September, has inherited a theatre which is actually doing better business now than it was pre-pandemic thanks to changes in the programming. Her challenge now is to build on that post-Covid bounce.
Anna, who took up her role in September, has inherited a theatre which is actually doing better business now than it was pre-pandemic thanks to changes in the programming. Her challenge now is to build on that post-Covid bounce.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. It's a real
00:05 pleasure to meet and speak to you today for the first time, the new CEO of Portsmouth's
00:10 New Theatre Royal, Anna Farthing. Now, congratulations on the job and you're coming into a theatre,
00:16 well I guess any time coming into a theatre is a challenging time, but you said something
00:20 really striking just now, that audiences at the New Theatre Royal are better than they
00:26 were pre-pandemic, that's really quite something isn't it? Yes, we're really, really thrilled
00:31 actually that here at the New Theatre Royal audiences have bounced back. So we've attracted
00:36 a lot of new audiences as well, so we're seeing very strong attendance from families, from
00:44 three generation families and also from groups of young men, which is unusual for theatre
00:49 and I think it really does sort of show the population of Portsmouth. Yeah, is that something
00:54 that's changed or something you've sought as a theatre? I think that young people particularly
01:02 are really, really excited by the live experience, they're excited by things that cannot be repeated,
01:08 that's why they choose to go to festivals and camp and get muddy and cold and wet and
01:12 all the rest of it, you know, and there's a real kind of enthusiasm for immersive experiences
01:21 and live experiences, improvisation, things with participation, things that are multi-sensory.
01:27 So will those kinds of things be your priority to sort of stress the liveness of theatre
01:31 then? Is that the kind of thing you will be looking to provide? Yes, and actually fortunately
01:37 for us it's what this theatre has always provided. So the theatre was built in the 1850s and
01:43 remodelled in 1900 to be an immersive space, to be a space with really fantastic acoustics,
01:53 where the sound moves around so that laughter and applause and gasps and all of those kind
01:59 of audience reactions are carried throughout the space and they really, you really feel
02:05 it in that space. It really ramps you up in New Theatre Royal, you really sense them don't
02:10 you? The acoustics are just perfect for whatever you're sitting watching. And that's true whether
02:14 it's music, whether it's comedy, whether it's theatre or dance, whether it's a youth theatre
02:22 show where the parents are going wild and clapping and cheering, whether it's a really
02:28 tender thing where people are actually, almost little murmurs come through, it is that sense
02:36 of you'll never ever be able to experience this. These are some of the things that the
02:40 theatre is doing already, what are the things that you particularly want to bring in as
02:44 new would you say under your tenure? Well I think we're going to own this idea of what's
02:50 new at the New Theatre Royal. We'll develop this very eclectic programme which means that
02:56 there is lots of different things on. We'll develop a bit more of a daytime programme
03:00 for people who perhaps, particularly in the winter, are not so comfortable coming out
03:04 in the evening. I mean I have to say, we are very near, we're near the railway station,
03:10 we're very near great parking, we've got bus routes and cycle routes, we're easy to
03:15 get to, but nonetheless some people prefer not to go out in the evenings in the dark.
03:20 And so for that audience we'll be doing more stuff during the day. We're also going to
03:25 be working on new work, new writing, new stories, working with new companies and writers, both
03:34 locally and further afield. So that there's that sense of a continuum really, because
03:41 the New Theatre Royal is being looked after by the people of Portsmouth and we need to
03:45 listen to them. And you are very strategically sitting in front of the poster for the Panto
03:49 this year. Panto, as with every theatre of course, is crucial isn't it? Central to the
03:54 whole year, vital to the success of the theatre isn't it? Yes, and I mean obviously Pantomime
04:01 is very important to us from a financial and sustainability point of view, but Pantomime
04:06 is also the first introduction to theatre for many families, and for many families it's
04:12 the only time they come to the theatre. So it's really, really important that we honour
04:16 that and we make it the very, very best that it can be. And I'm really thrilled that we're
04:20 working with Jordan Productions, who produce Pantomimes of really top quality that are
04:27 all about audiences, audience interaction, participation, and having that really good
04:33 fun experience with proper old-fashioned jokes, proper story, story for the children, a little
04:41 bit of innuendo for the grown-ups. It's not a Panto that's about putting telestars that
04:46 really don't know how to work on the stage in front of a microphone, it's a Panto that's
04:50 actually about celebrating theatre in all its forms. So yeah, I'm really, really proud
04:55 of what we're doing at Christmas.
04:57 Fantastic, and certainly last year's Panto at New Theatre Royal was fantastic, it really
05:01 was brilliant. So more of the same please.
05:03 Thank you.
05:04 Lovely to speak to you, look forward to chatting lots more, and congratulations on the job
05:10 and good luck with it too.
05:12 Thank you so much, I look forward to speaking to you again.
05:15 Thank you.
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