I VERY much appreciated Keith Bruce’s words in his column "Sorry, Douglas, but you are wrong abut the Citz being provincial", Herald Magazine, February 16). This was in response to the comments by Douglas Henshall that the Citizens Theatre is unambitious and “some wee provincial place” in an interview published the week before.
I would also like to take this opportunity to respond.
It is right for Keith to focus on the Citizens Theatre’s production of The Oresteia, a recent success at the Edinburgh International Festival and which has subsequently been invited to two international festivals. A new adaptation by Zinnie Harris, it epitomised our desire to present bold new interpretations of classics that talk to contemporary audiences. This week we are opening an extraordinary new work, The Dark Carnival, which is a co-production with Vanishing Point – surely Scotland’s most international theatre company. In addition, I do not regard it as "provincial" or unambitious for our next two productions to be radical reinterpretations of two classic texts – A Doll’s House and The Duchess of Malfi – something of which I think "the triumvirate" would actually approve. Nor is it unambitious for all our work this year to be driven by a desire to celebrate Scottish women writers and artists.
And if "provincial" means that we also care about and focus on our audiences in Glasgow then this is something that I, and everyone who works at the Citz, is proud of. Our Learning department works tirelessly within and for our local community; if you live in the Gorbals you can still see any Citz show for £2, and anyone can still come and see one of our productions for 50p.
Of course, we can’t please everyone all the time and with increased funding we could do a whole lot more. But believe me, there is certainly no lack of will or ambition for that to happen.
Dominic Hill,
Artistic Director, Citizens Theatre,
c/o 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow.
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