PRESS RELEASE

17 May 2004

STATEMENT BY CORIN REDGRAVE

The following statement by Corin Redgrave was read

out by John Levitt, Chairman of Save London’s Theatres Campaign, at the Seminar Why Keep The Redgrave Theatre? held at the Brightwells Bowling Clubhouse, Brightwells, Farnham, 14 May 2004.

"Some years ago I made a film about my father for the BBC’s Omnibus documentary programme. One section of the film was shot in the foyer of the Redgrave Theatre. It was sadly dilapidated then, and that was seven years ago. Worse now, I suppose.

The neglect and semi-ruin of a theatre so generously named after my father, hardly a quarter of a century after it was built, seemed to me symbolic of the transitoriness and impermanence of the actor’s art and its place in our society. It is a paradox. Our country, I think, is permanently good at this most impermanent art. Maybe there is in our national temperament, if one can identify such a thing, just the necessary tension between introspection and extraspection to produce good acting. More than any other country in Europe, except Russia.

But there the comparison ends. Russia respects its actors and its theatres. Even now, in post-tsarist, post-communist Russia, acting is respected and nourished. Not so in our country, which almost despises what it does so well.

My interest in the Redgrave is partly familial. It pains me more than I can adequately express to see it in its present state. But I am mainly interested in what its revival could accomplish.

One is acutely aware of all the theatres within a certain radius which now compete for audiences and for funding. Hence I do not believe that a revived Redgrave could ever begin to thrive if it only offered what it did so well before. It would thrive, I believe, in the measure that Farnham and its theatre should become as synonymous with excellence, as that pretty little village in East Sussex, Glyndebourne, has become.

And since, with its present seating capacity, the Redgrave must always be subsidised, it must be subsidised and sponsored for what it does supremely well, because it will never be subsidised if it is just another theatre.

What is supremely good in theatre? That’s the point, surely; that the question is unanswerable in terms of any fixed values, only answerable in terms of demonstrable quest.

I would establish a foundation for the study of acting. The Redgrave would be a school, and a theatre. A school primarily for graduate actors who would be paid both as students and performers. Its teachers would be directors and actors from Europe and America.

I would dedicate the next five years of my life, and a negotiable part of what remained, if any, to such a project."

Corin Redgrave is at present rehearsing the role of King Lear for the RSC at Stratford and sent his apologies for not being able to attend the Seminar.

Click here for the full account of the Brightwell seminar