Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory

"a string of consecutive sold-out seasons from 2007 through to 2010"
Mike Gartside, FOLIO MAGAZINE

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History

Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory – A Brief History, 1999-2011

1999 

February: a first meeting with George Ferguson, the Tobacco Factory’s architect-owner. The theatre space booked for a Shakespeare season in the spring of 2000.  Budgets sketched and Board members sought for an as yet unnamed commercial company. October: a limited company formed and business plan launched, with an investment target of £30,000. December sees shortfall of several thousand pounds.  Board decides to go ahead with first season on lower company wage (of only £150 pw). Stage Electrics agree to back company with the gift of free lighting hire.

2000 

January: first rehearsals. The Factory is still in course of redevelopment and our small production team liaises with the Building Site Manager.  The booking line is a single mobile phone, with no credit card facilities – the audience will pay on arrival. February 9th: King Lear opens with almost no pre-bookings. Six days later the cast of fifteen plays to an audience of only twelve. But on February17th, The Independent gives half a page to an enthusiastic review by Toby O’Connor Morse. Bookings rocket. By end of a 5-week run, the mobile phone is turning people away. A Midsummer Night’s Dream attracts Guardian critic, Lyn Gardner, and The Independent’s Paul Taylor. Almost overnight the company is recognised in the theatre world and has earned an audience of almost 8,000.

2001

The second season opens with Measure for Measure, followed by neglected masterpiece, Coriolanus. Jeremy Kingston of The Times dubs company ‘one of the most exciting theatre companies in the land.’ Audience rises to 11,500. Company wins the ‘Up-and-Coming Theatre’ Category in annual Peter Brook - Empty Space Awards.

2002

The third season sees The Winter’s Tale and Twelfth Night. Lucy Black is nominated for an Ian Charleson Award for her performance as Olivia in second play. Audience rises to over 16,000.

2003

Troilus & Cressida is the bold choice to open fourth season, with more popular As You Like It to follow. London’s Barbican Theatre expresses interest in the company, sees the productions and invites company to take its next season to the Pit Theatre for a five-week run.

2004

Macbeth earns the company its only consistently poor reviews in the national press. Middleton & Rowley’s The Changeling fares better in that respect but sees a fall-off in the Bristol audience. Both productions play to sell-out audiences, but mixed reviews, at the Barbican Pit. SATTF begins long-winded process of redefining itself as a charity with generous pro bono help from TLT Solicitors and Baker Tilly Accountants.

2005

The new, charitable Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory offers the relatively unpopular piece, Pericles, together with its first play from the modern era, Chekhov’s Three Sisters. The Chekhov is widely praised but the season as a whole sees a fall-off in audience and loses money. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation agrees to substantial financial support for two years.

2006

Titus Andronicus plays to only 40% capacity, despite glowing reviews. The company has misjudged its established audience and failed to capture a new one for a brutal but powerful play of topical relevance. Love’s Labour’s Lost fares better but not well enough to save the company from almost immediate closure. A public appeal produces a rapid and overwhelming response; the season can continue and the company plan for 2007. 

2007 

Othello and Much Ado About Nothing both sell out. Jonathan Miller agrees to direct for the company in the following season.

2008 

Both The Taming of the Shrew and Jonathan Miller’s production of Hamlet sell out, with Hamlet extended by a week. Audience total reaches almost 22,000. Oliver Le Sueur is nominated for an Ian Charleson Award for his performances of Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew and Laertes in Hamlet.

2009 

A ‘Roman Season’ of Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra almost matches the success of 2008, playing to 95%.  The company joins with Bristol Old Vic to produce Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in the BOV’s Theatre Royal.

2010

A ‘magical season’ of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (the company’s first ‘revisit’) and The Tempest makes for a fourth sellout year. Uncle Vanya heads the theatrical bill at the 2010 Galway International Arts Festival. A second highly-praised autumn co-production with Bristol Old Vic in the Theatre Royal - an updated version of Tony Harrison's brilliant version of Moliere's The Misanthrope.

2011

A season of opposites, Richard II (the company's first English History play) is followed by The Comedy of Errors, which then transferred to the Exeter Northcott for a two-week season. King Lear and The Cherry Orchard are planned for 2012.