August 2006 HITN Profile: Mull Theatre

Mull Theatre

MULL THEATRE are celebrating their final season in the cramped confines of Dervaig, and looking forward to an even more expansive future in their new home.

Mission Statement

MULL THEATRE is one of Scotland’s foremost touring theatre companies. Core-funded by the Scottish Arts Council since 2001, it makes a significant contribution to the cultural life of its own island community and throughout Argyll & Bute as well as to the overall provision of theatre activity within Scotland.

Its aim is to increase access to and participation in live theatre, both within its island community and beyond, and to create an environment which fosters creativity in the performing arts.

Since it opened, Mull Little Theatre has produced about 150 plays and seen well over 3,000 performances. Nearly 120,000 people have attended live theatre performances in this tiny cowshed in a remote village on an offshore island.

The company’s Artistic Director is Alasdair McCrone, who first came to Mull Theatre as an actor for the 1987 season and returned as full-time director in 1995.

Then he was the sole employee working with a volunteer administrator and a supportive board of directors. Now there is a core staff team of Lesley Hastie (Administrator), Sheena Miller (Marketing), Tony Cox (Associate Director – mainly working on the new building), Juliet Knight (Development – a lot of fundraising), and the company is soon to take on an Education Outreach officer.

Mull Little Theatre at Dervaig.

Its creative team is a mix of regulars and newcomers. Most of the actors and stage management come from all around Scotland and beyond, although some have been company members on and off for many years – Alan Steele, Robert Paterson, Fletcher Mathers, Fiona Colliss, Beth Marshall, Mick Andrew, etc, with many others contributing to the larger touring shows.

In Music and Design the same team have worked on many projects over the last few years: Alicia Hendrick (designer), Martin Low (music and sound design), Robin Peoples (designer and builder) and Alan Melvin (builder and scenic artist) have been responsible for most of the company’s productions.

For many years the mainstay of the company has been its touring work. Mull Theatre tours extensively throughout the country, often to areas of low population where there is little access to live theatre, and it also contributes to the programming of major theatres with seasons at venues such as Dundee Rep, Perth Theatre, the Byre, the Royal Lyceum, the Tron and the Citizens Theatre.

It has recently completed a London West End run (December 2005), in association with the Ambassador Theatre Group, of a new play commissioned by the company.

Recent productions include: CYPRUS by Peter Arnott; KATIE MORAG by Mairi Hedderwick; THE LONESOME WEST by Martin McDonagh; JEKYLL & HYDE by R.L. Stevenson; THE DESIGNATED MOURNER by Wallace Shawn’ COPENHAGEN by Michael Frayn; KIDNAPPED by R.L. Stevenson.

Mull Theatre aims to provide an environment of creativity and exploration in the arts. It supports education and community theatre programmes, new writing initiatives, creative apprenticeships and a diverse range of opportunities for individuals and groups to release their creative potential.

The company regularly commissions new work from some of Scotland’s leading dramatists. It also runs a playwrights’ workshop, a further-education drama course in association with Argyll College, and has a close involvement with schools and community groups.

The company has been in existence since 1966, operating from the tiny Mull Little Theatre in the village of Dervaig on the Isle of Mull. Here the company runs a challenging and diverse repertory season from May to September every year.

However, the current year, 2006, is the final season in Dervaig, as the lease on the original theatre building ends in December. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story, since the company has secured SAC Lottery, European and Local Enterprise Company funding to create a new production centre at Druimfin, just outside Tobermory.

This will facilitate the creation of touring shows and the development of other work by Mull Theatre and will offer facilities and support to other companies.

Mull Theatre's production of Macbeth.

The new home for Mull Theatre

Throughout 2006 and into 2007, Mull Theatre will build its new home just outside Tobermory. The new facility will be at Druimfin, which lies within Aros Park, a former country estate which is now a much loved and easily accessible public park owned and run by the Forestry Commission.

This soon to be built Production Centre will allow Mull Theatre to create an exciting model for theatre practice in the Highlands. We hope this will be a hub of creative opportunity where work will be produced, new shows tried out, great projects conceived, skills acquired and nurtured, creativity encouraged, ideas developed, collaborations fostered and careers launched.

Current Production Or Work-In-Progress

2006 Mull Theatre Productions:

‘Art’ - The internationally successful comedy makes its debut in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Mull Theatre’s production of this comic, sometimes riotous, study of friendship has shades of ‘Frasier’ and ‘Men Behaving Badly!’ (Touring Scotland in September/October)

‘Macbeth’ - Marvel at how it’s possible to fit nine murders, numerous banquets and all kinds of magical deeds on to a stage measuring 14 by 7 feet! Dynamic, inventive, highly imaginative and theatrical, this production is an original interpretation of Shakespeare’s dark, political thriller.

‘Egg’ - The story of Red, whose mission is to care for and educate an egg bound for Earth in a spaceship. But things don’t always go to plan! This is a second season for our wonderful clown show for all ages.
(Touring Scotland in September/October)

‘Old Herbaceous’ - This one-man show was a much-loved part of Mull Little Theatre’s summer seasons in 1984 and 1986, and it returned for the final year at the old theatre. As gardener Bert potters around his plant pots and gardening tools, he relates tales of his life as a gardener, completely drawing us in to his special world.

Coming up…

‘In the Wake of Bright Water’, by Jon Pope, based on the writings of Gavin Maxwell - a dramatic portrait of one of the most extraordinary Scots of recent times: social renegade, basking shark hunter, racing driver, wartime secret agent, poet – as well as naturalist and explorer.

‘Swindle and Death’ by Peter Arnott - a pair of shabby, yet grandiose actors touring popular melodrama around Scotland in the twilight of the Edwardian age. Like the seasons, they appear every year at the same time. In 1913, however, they leave something more than the memory of a performance behind...

Mull Theatre's production of Egg.

Fantasy Theatre – Your Dream Project?

Doing the work we currently do in tiny Mull Little Theatre (where you can’t swing a mouse let alone a cat) in a venue where animal acrobatics are possible.

Golden Moment?

There have been so many over the last few years that it’s hard to pick out one:

Taking our shows to venues which very few if any other companies get to – Colonsay, Coll, Benderloch, Campbeltown, etc, etc.

Taking the same show into local village halls that has been seen at all the biggest theatres in the country – e.g. our production of ‘Copenhagen’ which played in only three venues – Mull Little Theatre, the Glasgow Citizens and Easdale Island Village Hall.

Taking ‘Cyprus’, a play we’d commissioned, to the West End.

Finally knowing that the new production centre had got the funding go-ahead.

Assembling and working with a fantastic creative team who have collaborated on many shows over the last few years.

Mull Theatre's production of Jekyll and Hyde.

And Not So Golden Moment…

It was the opening night of Macbeth on July 10th this year, and it had been a very short production week due to the number of shows at the Little Theatre. The set was bigger than normal, in that it extended out through to the backstage area and out into the foyer.

The last bits were being hammered together outside as it approached time for the doors to open - when the rain started. ‘Rain’ is too timid a word for what happened; it was more of a monsoon, the kind of summer downpour that comes at you from all angles and soaks through clothing in 10 seconds flat.

The most leaky bits of the theatre were no match for this and within seconds the ladies’ loo was flooded and water ran in torrents between the dressing room and backstage area.

Dripping audience members rushed up under inadequate umbrellas only to be sent back to far-away parking spaces because the set building was now taking up the entire foyer area.

Finally the doors opened and everybody squelched and dripped into the theatre, perfectly suited for the pre-show sound effects of a lightning storm!

Highland Theatre – Is There Such A Thing, And If So, What Is It?

Mull Theatre was one of the founding members of the Highland Theatre forum nearly 10 years ago. At that time we were all united by lack of funding and breadth of aspiration.

Thankfully the funding aspect has become a bit less of an issue for Mull Theatre, and I know that many of the members of HITN get project funding and support from the Highland Producers Fund.

The aspirations of the companies remain broad, and encompass many disciplines and experiences. I think it’s dangerous to attempt to align the many and varied companies in the region to a particular type or approach.

Nevertheless what clearly unites the practitioners is their love of, investment in and ambition for their own artform in the place they come from or have made their home.

© Alasdair McCrone, 2006

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Mull Theatre

MULL THEATRE are celebrating their final season in the cramped confines of Dervaig, and looking forward to an even more expansive future in their new home.

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