James Dacre: Theatres must learn to collaborate more
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Version 0 of 1. Tennessee Williams had an ear for titles that catch the eye of theatregoers and one of his grabbiest – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – currently beckons from posters in Newcastle, Manchester and Northampton, locations of the theatres co-producing a new production of the 1955 play in which a southern family, dominated by tyrannical parents Big Daddy and Big Mama, is divided by secrets of illness and desire. Directing the revival is James Dacre, artistic director of the thriving Northampton Royal and Derngate theatres since last year, when his predecessor, Laurie Sansom, was appointed to run the National Theatre of Scotland. Dacre is responsible for three stages of different sizes and a recently opened arthouse cinema, the Errol Flynn filmhouse, named after the Australian movie star who appeared in more than 20 plays at the Royal in the 1933-34 repertory season. On a typical day this week, the Flynn was showing the photography documentary Finding Vivian Maier, while the theatres offered a choice between an adaptation of the Pat Barker novel Regeneration and a concert by Lisa Stansfield. Talking in the theatre coffee bar in a brief gap between finishing technical rehearsals of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in Northampton and travelling to Newcastle, Dacre emphasises the contemporary relevance of a play with a title that alludes to both political and orgasmic agitation. “Written on the eve of the civil rights and sexual revolutions of the 60s,” he says, “it asks us, in a production in 2014, how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. And Williams kept asking himself that question when he tinkered with the script for later productions.” The play is written phonetically in the accents of the American south, which is an obvious challenge for a company including English actors. “Yes, that has to be worked very hard at in the rehearsal room, and we have been very lucky to have a dialect coach and that one of the company, Kim Criswell, comes from that part of the world. Although, beyond that, accuracy of accent is pointless if you haven’t found the psychological truth behind the lines.” True to the speech of white southerners at the time, the text also includes the word “nigger” and productions today have to balance historical accuracy against contemporary offensiveness. And Dacre acknowledged that, even though we were speaking during the week of the opening, he had not decided whether to censor the references. “It is a talking point for the company and we have discussed it a lot. Unlike some of Williams’s other work, racial civil rights aren’t central to this play, so they could be cut. But I suspect that, in the end, we will go with the text played on Broadway in 1955.” Outside the theatre, long and winding conga-lines of traffic cones designate nine weeks of labyrinthine diversions imposed during work by the Northamptonshire Highways Agency. The resulting complications to access and parking at the Royal and Derngate buildings are an example of the non-artistic challenges that someone running a regional theatre can face. Some directors who become artistic directors of a whole theatre have struggled to cope with suddenly being responsible not only for whether to place the soliloquies upstage or downstage but whether the venue’s electricity bill can be reduced. Dacre admits: “Yes, that is an adjustment, but I like to think that I’m good at keeping several plates spinning.” His tenure at the venues so far has been marked by striking use of musicians – movie composer Rachel Portman for his version of Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities and the post-punk band White Lies for the Williams – and work, which though Made in Northampton (the slogan for his first season) shares funding and runs with other UK playhouses. The budgeting of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a tale of two cities and one town, while Regeneration will tour. “I think,” says Dacre, “that the idea of local theatre has had to be rethought. Partnerships with other theatres are more and more important in doing high-quality work that is seen by as many people as possible. I think there has been a huge shift in regional theatre recently towards a culture of collaboration that allows you to do more than you could accomplish alone.” Audiences, he says, have been “very healthy” and the theatre is “on track” for his target of a million visitors across three years. However, he politely declines to specify the percentage occupancy targets that the productions need to meet. “It’s constantly shifting,” he says. “The targets depend on the type of work it is. So you can’t talk in percentage terms because it depends on how the show is budgeted and how it is funded, with regional partners and so on. But balance is key. For every brave, progressive choice, a piece of work that will reach a much broader audience is needed.” At the press night of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the man from the Daily Mail may have to endure a few cracks from colleagues about “Big Daddy” because the director’s father, Paul Dacre, is editor of the Mail and editor-in-chief of the dmg group. James’s grandfather, Peter, and uncle, Nigel, also became high-profile journalists. So, for amateur Freudians in the media world, there has been an easy assumption that James’s professional choice of the theatre rather than newspapers was a rebellion against the male (and Mail) family line but, as in a good edition of Who Do You Think You Are?, the truth turns out to be more complicated. His mother, Professor Kathy Dacre, is director of learning, teaching and curriculum studies at Rose Bruford College, a London drama school, having previously taught at the Central School of Drama. “I spent a great deal of time growing up in the hallways of the drama schools my mum taught in and so that clearly had a powerful effect. But I didn’t think about theatre professionally until the end of my time at [Cambridge] university, after having directed several shows there and at the Edinburgh festival.” Had he ever been tempted by journalism? “I think I was always in love with the idea of theatre. And I think teaching has lived as profoundly as journalism in my background. Apart from my mother, there are a great number of teachers in my family. So I think there’s always been a strong sense of engaging with audiences, constituencies ...” [a pause longer than in any Harold Pinter play] “... readerships.” When I suggest that there are clearly overlaps between the roles of theatre director, teacher and editor, there is another lengthy hesitation from a man who knows how words can be twisted by journalism before he laughs and replies: “Yes. You can say so.” In a culture where the words Daily Mail are sometimes used as shorthand for certain attitudes and values, has the allusion sometimes been made unknowingly by actors in his presence? “I’d like to think very much that I’m making my own mark in my own way and that people engage with me based on my own ideas and achievements. Also, those that know and work with me know me to be fiercely independent.” Dacre is sometimes described as an “Old Etonian”, which is correct but complicated because, after a state school education, he went there on a scholarship. So has he had a less privileged upbringing than some people may suspect? “I don’t know what they’re thinking. I hope I’m judged on my work.” David Cameron has suffered prejudicial assumptions because of his schooling, so I wondered if Dacre has met any toff-bashing in theatre? “I hope that people assess me for my ideas and achievements. But I think class is a very complicated thing. My own background is a combination of working-class mother and middle-class father. I think, in modern Britain, there’s an eclecticism to the way we are all made up.” And, although it would probably be a foolhardy Daily Mail theatre reviewer who gave one of his productions a bad review, the director cannot be accused of trading on his name or background. At the launch of the Made in Northampton season, when a journalist mentioned the connection over coffee, even playwrights and directors who had worked closely with James Dacre turned out to have been unaware of the lineage. Before I leave, he shows me round the theatre, empty on this early Saturday morning, the stage of the Royal protected by the 19th-century safety curtain that is bordered with the faces of key figures in Northampton’s theatrical history, including Errol Flynn. The Royal and Derngate have just launched an appeal to restore and renovate the drape and I suggest that the director should take the opportunity to put his own face on the trim. He flinches, a man who would prefer to keep his face private and his name associated only with theatre. • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is at Northern Stage until 27 September, Royal and Derngate Northampton from 1-18 October, and Royal Exchange Manchester from October 30-November 29. |