SUDDENLY, after a period in which the once high-profile Riverside Studios had slipped into relative obscurity and a debt of more than £200,000,
it is rising to catch the limelight again. Unhappily, it is for
the wrong reasons.SUDDENLY, after a period in which the once high-profile Riverside Studios had slipped into relative obscurity and a debt of more than £200,000,
it is rising to catch the limelight again. Unhappily, it is for
the wrong reasons.
All Riverside needed was a new director to restore its fortunes
following the resignation of the last incombent, Jonathan Lamede.
Nothing wrong with that. But the manner in which the board has
gone about the task has aroused a storm of protest.
At the centre of this is not the director finally chosen, Jules
Wright, but the film star Alan Rickman, who packed the Riverside theatre last year with his Hamlet and put together a powerful consortium designed to restore Riverside's
reputation as a leading centre for drama and other arts.
Rickman gathered around him an impressive array of talent and experience
which included actresses Juliet Stevenson and Fiona Shaw, theatre
producer Thelma Holt, director Deborah Warner and BBC TV chief
Alan Yentob.
Under the terms of his bid, Rickman would have made Riverside the exclusive venue for his own theatre
work in London. The intention was also to bring in work by internationally
renowned directors such as Peter Brook, Peter Stein and Robert
Sturua, as well as making the studios available for festivals
like Dance Umbrella and London International Festival of Theatre.
But the Riverside board, under the chairmanship of barrister William
Hunter, was apparently not overwhelmed by the 20-page bid and
rejected it. This would have been an unkind cut at best, but the
circumstances in which the decision was taken have provoked anger
and disbelief.
Rickman discovered that the bid, which had been given to an intermediary,
Riverside board member Jane Hackworth Young, because it did not
precisely answer the job specification, was kept by her for a
month. It was not finally delivered to the selection panel until
all the interviews had been completed and less than half an hour
before the panel was due to report its recommendations to the
board.
The facts surrounding the whole business are extremely disturbing
at the very least, ' says Rickman, 'and merit continuing inquiry.'
Another of the group's key members, Thelma Holt, now presenting an acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Queen's Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, is equally concerned.
She ought an explanation from both the board and Miss Hackworth
Young, who is also a Hammersmith Labour councillor and is now
understood to have resigned from the Riverside board the day she
delivered the bid.
'We have had courteous responses from both,' says Holt, 'but they
are both most unsatisfactory.
'Short of Peter Brook coming home and taking over Riverside, it
is difficult to think who among the applicants could be so wonderful
that the consortium led by Alan Rickman did not even merit an interview.'
Miss Hackworth Young has written an apologetic letter to the Rickman consortium admitting her error in withholding their bid, which
is of scant comfort to the consortium because it has not led to
a corrective response from the board.
The consortium has been further confused by the attitude of Riverside's
chairman William Hunter. Its initial understanding from him on
the telephone was that the bid had been received too late to be
considered.
Later, in a public statement, Hunter said: 'Notwithstanding that
the proposal was presented extremely late and after the interview
process had been completed, the board instructed the interviewing
panel to consider the proposal. Thereafter the panel did so, but
concluded that there was a better course for Riverside to take.'
Thelma Holt wonders when, given the lateness of the submission,
the panel had a cance to give it due care and consideration and
why it was not possible for the board to delay the decision by
24 hours to enable the consortium to put its case in person.
About 12 candidates were interviewed of the 40 or so who applied.
The successful candidate proved to be the less well-known Australian-born
director Jules Wright, who founded the Women's Playhouse Trust
in 1981 with the aim of promoting unknown women playwrights, directors
and actors. She currently works out of the WPT's premisses in
Covent Garden.
She had one distinct advantage over all the other candidates.
She knows Riverside exceptionally well, having been on the board
until just before the closing deadline for applications on 25
June, and is said ot have helped draw up the job description for
the job she hasnow won.
Riverside and the WPT, which as the redoubtable Pamela, Lady Harlech
as its chairwoman, are now negotiating to establish 'a joint venture,
resulting in the 'reinvention of Riverside as a vibrant and innovative
artist-led comany.' According to Riverside, the 'consolidation'
has been welcomed by the funding bodies, Hammersmith Council and
London Arts Board.
The confusion surrounding the Rickman bid has made Ms Wright's task no easier. Not only will her achievements
be jedged in the light of what might have been; she has the Riverside
Trust's public declaration that the Studios under her directorship
will 'set the artistic agenda for the decade.'
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