Down by the Riverside

Variety, 16 August 1993

RIVERSIDE STUDIOS, a former BBC television facility, has been for the last decade or so one of the city's most prestigious fringe venues, housing much of the London Intl. Festival-of Theater as well as such local offerings as the recent Alan Rickman Hamlet. Hearing that the theater was $300,000 in debt, Rickman formed a takeover consortium which also featured the producer Thelma Holt, actresses Juliet Stevenson and Fiona Shaw, director Deborah Warner and BBC TV chief Alan Yentob. A more prestigious or politically correct group has seldom been found anywhere in British theater, so imagine their surprise when the Riverside board of management declined their offer. Instead the board has appointed Jules Wright of the Women's Playhouse Trust to run Riverside, a location she knows well since she was until recently on its board and indeed helped draw up the job description for new applicants. Challenged to explain the decision, the Riverside management affirmed their faith directorship would "set the artistic agenda for the next decade." Just think what Rickman's team might have achieved.

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