As the season concludes with The Nutcracker, ” a classic Bristol Old Vic Christmas show”  from the pens of Tom Morris and lyricist/composer Gwyneth Herbert,  he records a final statement.

 

 

It seems an appropriate moment to thank the outstanding board and team at Bristol Old Vic for their unswerving support and constant encouragement during my time as Artistic Director here, and all of the people from every walk of life in Bristol, the region and beyond who have made change possible here in the last decade. 

During a period of profound transformation and shocking challenge, it is the collaborative nature of theatre-making and the creative spirit of Bristol that makes Bristol Old Vic not only the most beautiful theatre in the country, but the most satisfying and nourishing workplace I will ever find.  

And as I look ahead to the theatre’s future under the brilliant, skillful and caring leadership of Nancy Medina and Charlotte Geeves, there is a simple question I would ask of anyone reading this. 

In world shaken by change, shattered by division, split by economic division, exhausted by the effort of survival and challenged by the imperative of reinvention, what are the most valuable things our artists might do for your good, and the good of the society you live in?  

I don’t just mean in theatre. These questions apply just as much to music, painting, sculpture, gaming, poetry, TV, stand-up comedy and film.

Do you want artists to charm you, to reassure you, to enlighten you, to challenge you?  Do you want them to represent the world as it is, or shine a light on what it might become?  Or do you just want them to make you laugh, to make you cry, to reconnect us and to remind us who we are?

Do you want your artists to make you feel things you’d forgotten or distract you from the struggles of a dispiriting world? Or do you want them to inspire with new hope to make that world better?

Perhaps you are looking more widely to artists to stimulate the economic revival in our towns and cities, release the educational potential of your children, or contribute to the international reputation of Great Britain? Or perhaps you have seen what happens when creative opportunity is shared with those on the fringes of our health service and our social care system, awakening the self-confidence which allows us to rebuild our lives.

Or maybe, like many of our audiences, you see a simpler need for artists to bring people together, to hold a place of reflection, or to help us to remember precious things and precious people we have lost? 

Whichever of these you value most, I am here to remind you that they will not continue to happen by themselves.   If we want them to continue, we are going to have to argue for them powerfully and to put our hands in our pockets to pay for them. Otherwise creative opportunity will once again become a plaything of the privileged and the potential of its transformative energy in these most challenging times will be wasted. 

If you have a business, therefore, I ask you to consider the benefit of a genuine investment partnership with one of the creative organisations in your city or region.  If you are charitable trust looking to transform the world, think again about the energy and vision which is released when you empower the creativity of the people who really can dream a better world. If you work at the Arts Council please remember the satisfaction of backing the creative process rather than interrogating it. If you work at Bristol City Council, please open your eyes at last to the massive benefits which meaningful investment in culture could bring this city in the very areas you care about most.  Above all if you are someone who is drawn to the idea that the creativity in all of us might help us face the challenges of the future, then please know that your support, financial, practical and emotional, is the life blood of a theatre like ours and without it we can do nothing.