Drama on cue as the stars come out in Sheffield

It's the snooker, of course.

The drama played out on the green baize, watched around the world, has made The Crucible internationally famous.

Mind you... there are those who would argue that even without the drama provided by Henry, O'Sullivan, Davis et al, the Crucible's reputation would be formidable, perhaps even international.

While snooker boasts these names, drama of a more traditional kind has brought the likes of Branagh, McKellen and Jacobi to the 39-year-old stage – and that's just in the past decade.

Sheffield Theatres' artistic director – which means he is the man in charge of the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Studio – is Daniel Evans.

He was one of the panel which presented Sheffield's bid to be City of Culture in Liverpool last month.

"The job I was doing before I was appointed the artistic director here in Sheffield was on Broadway," says Evans.

"When I came back to England I wasn't sure what to do. I had achieved much of what I wanted to in my acting career by being in a big hit play on Broadway, so I wasn't sure about what next.

"When the job came up for Sheffield I knew it was the plum job in regional theatre and it was the perfect next step."

That it is the plum job – the only bigger job, in terms of the size of venues, in British Theatre is the post of leading the National Theatre – says much about Sheffield's reputation for seriously high quality drama.

What Evans has found, however, since he arrived in the job, is that the Crucible might be at the top of a pyramid, but it is supported by a huge base of locally grown companies and people who are involved in performance in Sheffield.

Third Angel was established in Sheffield in 1995 by Alex Kelly and Rachael Walton. Now a theatre company that receives regular funding from the Arts Council, its first work, Test Card, was performed at the Workstation in Sheffield.

Kelly says: "The thing about the city is that there is such a network. The film-makers know the theatre-makers, know the visual artists and everyone is happy to collaborate.

"I think the thing that helps it so much is that it is a big city that can feel like a small town in terms of the networks available to artists working here."

While Third Angel's reputation has grown, its size has not and it remains a small company working out of a little office in Sheffield. Yet Alex Kelly and Rachael Walton are inspiring other young theatre artists to follow their lead and set up in the city – it is an ecology which feeds itself.

No better example of this comes from Third Angel's reasons for being in the city in the first place.

Alex Kelly was himself inspired to come to Sheffield by Forced Entertainment, a theatre company created by six friends who moved to Sheffield in 1984, led there by artistic director, founder member and city native Tim Etchells.

The company is one of the most celebrated in the world, their avant garde theatre work sees them respected and studied enormously on the Continent.

Speaking last month, when the company performed on home turf, founder member Robin Arthur said: "Anyone who sees our work recognises something very Sheffield in it. It's there in the humour and in our latest piece it's there in a very real sense because some of the footage features the city."

With other companies, including Point Blank, Dead Earnest and a newly founded theatre festival at the Riverside pub, the impressive theatre work coming out of Sheffield looks set to continue.