Northern Broadsides - the pioneering Yorkshire theatre company pushing boundaries

I hoped we wouldn’t reach the milestone at which we have arrived this week; on Tuesday both Sheffield Theatres and York Theatre Royal made heartbreaking announcements.

York’s chief executive Tom Bird said the theatre’s survival will depend on it reducing costs significantly and that ‘in the coming weeks we are going to have to make some very difficult decisions’. Sheffield had more clarity, chief executive Dan Bates announcing that 29 per cent of its workforce is at risk and that it will not reopen until Spring 2021.

It’s difficult news to have to announce and to share, but in trying to find positives I arrive this week at a company that will hopefully inspire those going through dark days to believe the sun will rise again. I can think of no company that defines Yorkshire grit and resilience more than Northern Broadsides.

“Northern Broadsides has made 69 bold, unpretentious productions of classic and new plays over the last 28 years. At its heart was the uncompromising energy and bullishness of its founder Barrie Rutter,” says the company’s artistic director Laurie Sansom. “Since taking over 16 months ago, we have been re-imagining the company’s mission, expanding the notion of ‘northern voice’ to reflect the diversity of today’s north, the multiplicity of voices and the distinctiveness of its communities.”

Broadsides should probably never have existed. A company founded in the image of Rutter, it was theatre built on raw passion and, frankly, a sense of injustice that the Northern tongue can’t relay the words of a king. That it survived and thrives is a good reason for it to feature this week as we start to hear worrying news of redundancies in our theatres. When Sansom took over, the tempest of the previous few years was seeming to calm. Then came COVID-19.

“The company was at a crossroads, needing to reassess its role locally and nationally, while building on its radical foundations. Being able to make both classic and new work has always been important to me, but more and more nurturing other theatre makers has taken priority.

“Discovering how once again the company could become an agent of social and cultural change was very attractive. I believe we should be in a state of permanent revolution, constantly questioning what the ‘northern voice’ is today, and unflinchingly exploring our heritage through contemporary culture.”

As one of the few mid to large-scale publicly funded touring companies still around, Broadsides has often lamented what it considers its paltry funding, a tune Sansom will continue to play.

“We are one of only a handful of professional performing arts companies in Calderdale even though it is such a vibrant place with a long and rebellious cultural history. We provide a home for professional artists living locally, and a resource for its diverse communities, making work here all year round whilst also touring nationally,” he says.

“We want to provide a platform for new talent from across the region, working with theatres to develop and commission new work from working class and diverse communities. Nationally we are one of very few publicly funded mid-scale touring companies with a fiercely loyal audience. We want to continue to share with them powerful stories, simply told, while capturing the complexity and variety of today’s North.”

Shortly before lockdown Broadsides had unveiled Quality Street, the first production from Sansom as AD. JM Barrie’s forgotten Edwardian rom-com lent its name to the famous chocolates manufactured in the town. The production opened on Valentine’s Day and had just begun a four-month tour when the theatres were closed down. The plan is to remount the production in spring next year.

As a company with such a loyal following, there are many who will know instantly what their defining Broadsides production is. Sansom lists significant productions including The Cracked Pot and Oedipus, toured in 2001 as a double bill, ‘two brilliant translations by poet and author Blake Morrison. One comedy, one tragedy, but both classics translated into a vigorous Yorkshire vernacular’.

“Of course then there was Othello in 2009, when Lenny Henry made his stage acting debut. The company went on to enjoy a West End transfer, and Lenny a stellar acting career.

“Casting Mat Fraser as King Richard III in 2017 was another pivotal moment; it was the first time a person with a visible disability had been cast in the role. It was such an important step for disability representation on stage and an exciting way to mark the company’s 25th anniversary whilst celebrating Hull’s status as City of Culture 2017.”

Broadsides was going through a defining period of change before coronavirus. “Theatre is arguably the best art form for exploring how an individual navigates the world around them and should play an essential role in reflecting back at us what those realities are for those people who have often been denied a mainstream platform,” says Sansom.

“The arts should be part of helping to find imaginative ways of re-imagining our society. Publicly funded arts companies will be judged in the future on their contribution to civic society as much as the quality of their work.”

Funding is the key to survival

Northern Broadsides artistic director Laurie Sansom is adamant that funding is the key. “Without more support from the Arts Council or other funding bodies we will struggle to survive, let alone achieve wider ambitions,” he says. “But with further support we are optimistic that we can harness the imagination of the artists and communities across the North to make bold, radical work that places ordinary people at the heart of the creative process and lights fires to catalyse change.”

For more information and to donate to the company visit northern-broadsides.co.uk

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