A Gift To Any Playwright By Gaby Styles and Mel Cooper

John Studzinski and the Genesis Foundation have provided hugely valued funding throughout Ian Rickson’s tenure as Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre, supporting the growth and sustained success of the International Playwrights’ Programme. Genesis has also supported the Young Writers’ Programme. Gaby Styles of the Royal Court and Mel Cooper of the Genesis Foundation look back as Ian Rickson ends his time there with a strongly cast production of Chekhov’s The Seagull.

Ian Rickson undoubtedly ended his nine-year reign as the Royal Court’s Artistic Director on a high. The Royal Court enjoyed an exuberant and record-setting year of theatre during its 50th Anniversary in 2006. More tickets were sold than ever before; more people came through the theatre’s doors than in any previous year; and there was a plethora of award nominations and presentations, including an Evening Standard Special Award for ‘making and changing theatrical history this last half century’.

The Royal Court has always prided itself on finding and producing new plays that are original, contemporary and challenging. This tradition goes back to the era of George Bernard Shaw, when the theatre club that occupied the Royal Court was first founded.  It was the dream of George Devine, who brought contemporary drama and cutting edge productions of classics back to this theatre when he founded the English Theatre Company in 1956. Within weeks he had opened a legendary production of Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer with the young Joan Plowright, Alan Bates and Robert Stephen in the cast; and then startled London with a production by an unknown playwright named John Osborne, Look Back in Anger. It is in this context, and with a concentration on finding new drama that became the core of the Court’s mission, that Ian Rickson settled. The Royal Court is the playwright’s theatre: it is steadfastly committed to new writing and has always aimed to empower writers and place them at the heart of the creative process.

Ian continued in the steps of Stephen Daldry and other Artistic Directors before him, nurturing and developing young writers and creating the conditions in which they could flourish. He has also worked closely with Elyse Dodgson, the Court’s International Associate Director, taking a significant interest in the International Playwrights’ Programme, both consolidating and driving forward this work. Ian and Elyse together raised the Programme’s profile, starting an International Playwrights’ season at the Court and launching the careers of numerous international writers who are now recognized by theatre cultures around the world.  They include Juan Mayorga, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Edgar Chias and Vassily Sigarev.

One of Ian’s most important achievements has been to ensure that writers whose first plays premiered at the Court – amongst them Mark Ravenhill, Joe Penhall, Jez Butterworth, Nick Grosso and Rebecca Gilman – went on to deliver their second and third plays. This is often the hardest thing for young dramatists, especially given our impatient culture in which people are constantly searching for the next new thing, rather than admiring and supporting talent and giving it a context in which to mature. Ian wanted to create a ‘sustainable culture’ for young writers and it is a testament to his success that theatres across London and the UK are today programming work by playwrights whose first break – and subsequent ones too – came at the Royal Court.

Simon Stephens is one of the many writers whom Ian nurtured and advocated. His first play, Bluebird, was produced as part of the Young Writers Festival in 1998 and less than a year later Ian invited him to be the Court’s Resident Dramatist.

“There is no question that it was a gesture that defined my subsequent career,” explains Simon. “He has made many of those gestures….It was an extraordinary and a typical leap of faith”.

And this leap of faith has paid off; since 1999, Simon Stephens has achieved critical acclaim with Herons, Country Music and Motortown at the Royal Court, and has won an Olivier Award for On the Shores of the Wide World at the National Theatre in 2006. He is undoubtedly one of Britain’s most exciting young playwrights today and the Royal Court can take pride in their early championing of his work.

Another writer with whom Ian has worked closely is Conor Mcpherson. Ian directed Mcpherson’s play The Weir at the Royal Court in 1997. Subsequently it transferred to the West End and then Broadway with great success. Conor describes Ian as “such a detailed, meticulous director and he set a very high benchmark for all of us in the rehearsal room. He truly seeks to serve the vision of the playwright…and is a gentle master of his art… His best work may well be yet to come and I look forward to seeing what the future brings”.

Ian has overseen, as Artistic Director, the staging of nearly 150 new plays during his tenure. He bows out with a beautifully-staged, new adaptation by Christopher Hampton (another Royal Court playwright) of Chekhov’s classic The Seagull, with a stellar cast including Kristin Scott-Thomas, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mackenzie Crook. It is a fitting production to leave on, given the Court’s own continued mission to nurture writers as raw as Chekhov’s Konstantin and see them develop and mature. Also, of course, it looks back to the era of the 1890s and early 1900s when Ibesen, Strindberg and Chekhov were too contentious to be performed elsewhere in London and were given exposure at the Royal Court Theatre.

As The Seagull opens, Dominic Cooke, the Royal Court’s new Artistic Director, is putting the finishing touches to the plans for his first season. One of the most exciting elements to Dominic’s new programme is his commitment to building on the international work that Ian and Elyse have so successfully continued to pioneer, Elyse’s involvement having begun even before Stephen Daldry’s tenure. It is a tradition that fits in with the first 50 years of the English Theatre Company and continues into a second half century. It was always George Devine’s aim that the Royal Court should be a truly international theatre, showcasing the finest and most exciting drama from all over the world; and this commitment will be at the heart of Dominic Cooke’s artistic mission.

Dominic’s intention is to work with Elyse in looking to find voices from the most diverse societies and cultures, finding new writers from all corners of the globe and bringing their stories onto the stage. As England develops more and more into a multi-cultural nation, and as the debates about race and multiculturalism become more urgent and central in our society, the Royal Court will do what theatre is best at doing: give audiences insights into experiences of other lives, other cultures, that they might not otherwise get to know.

Ian Rickson has left his own indelible legacy at the Court, one which gives Dominic huge potential and opportunity as he takes over the mantle.

No doubt exciting times lie ahead and the Genesis Foundation looks forward to continuing its prolific and successful relationship with Elyse Dodgson, to supporting the international work that she has championed for 20 years and more; and to working in partnership with the Royal Court’s new Artistic Director, Dominic Cooke.

The Royal Court’s new season will be launched in early February 2007. To purchase tickets and for further information please go to www.royalcourttheatre.com or call the box office on 0207 565 5000. And return to this website, where we will continue to follow the work and the fortunes of one of the most exciting and notable theatres in the world.