Touring company hardly still

Press, 7 March 1984, Page 5

Touring company hardly still

The Actors Touring Company was given its name by a doctor in Inverness, Scotland. It. is a name that has proved very appropriate — New Zealand, is the twentyfirst country the company has performed in in the last three years. The company began as an idea of a young schoolteacher working in Paris. John Retallick approached six unemployed London actors to form a group to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1978.

His original name for the group was Attic Theatre Company, because the idea for the company was devised in a Paris attic. That title had already been taken by another group so the actors were left with the initials.

“I still have the original Edinburgh Fringe poster with A.T.C. Paris on it. A doctor from Inverness suggested after our appearances in 1978 that we call ourselves the Actors Touring Company,” Mr Retallick said. “Really, it was the most appropriate name be-

cause that is who we are.”

The company is now known as A.T.C. London “because we are all Londoners.”

The young director, who received a West End Theatre award as best newcomer in theatre last year, had no formal training in theatre. He is still a little bemused, after five years, by the runaway success of the company. After the Edinburgh appearance where the company scooped a coveted festival first prize, came a professional tour of Scotland. The six actors in the company were paid the Actors Equity minimum of £5O a week.

It is with some pride that John Retallick says his actors have never been out of work since. In a country where 15 per cent of the profession are unemployed at any one time, it is no small achievement for a small company to continually have work.

Mr Retallick does not believe it is because the Actors Touring Company has a magic formula of what audiences want but

because of the commitment and hard work of the company. “Even when we are not on top form, and with a company that is touring as much as we are there will always be those nights, the critics and the audience have recognised the commitment.”

The company has been touring continually with three months out for a stint in the West End of London early last year. “It was the first time we had performed in London. We have been touring, touring, touring. It would be nice to have a home especially in London but it is extremely competitive there.”

The present company of eight has been together for about a year. The New Zealand tour has been accompanied by the company’s administrator and manager to make a party of 11, including Mr Retallick. After its season in Christchurdh for the Christchurch Festival, the company will return to Britain for a three-month tour.

Although the Actors Tour-

ing Company has been called a classical company, its repertoire includes original shows as well as Shakespeare. The production for the Christchurch Festival is Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” The costumes for the play are “fairly loose historical costumes;” the set consists of six stools. The play is obviously one of John Retallick’s favourites. “With ‘Twelfth Night’ if something goes wrong it is you, not the writer. It is a marvellous play, the original laugh-and-cry play with emotional confrontation and real pain and roistering laughter and comedy. We found with the audience in Hong Kong that, even though it was a non-intellec-tual audience, that once they got the idea of the plot, they loved it. It is an extraordinary theatre machine, with all the fun of a pantomime but much more poetry and pain.” The classics seemed to be undergoing a revival in European theatre, Mr Retallick said. “There seems to be a spiritual longing in theatre at the moment.

Shakespeare is played more often with German, Italian and French companies, some of them political in the past, now performing Shakespeare.” The Actors Touring Company productions are collaborative, the director said. “There is an enormous input from the actors. The shows obviously reflect me as the director but I certainly listen to what the actors have to say. I tend to go with them on character and with what I feel on unfolding the story of the play” The original works of the company, such as “Berlin, Berlin,” a nuclear story set in Berlin’s future, are cooperative efforts also. A quick look round the James Hay Theatre last evening had Mr Retallick more than satisfied with the venue. “One of the joys of touring abroad is that we play some magnificent theatres. In England we have appeared everywhere, including a boxing ring.” The company’s Christchurch season will open this evening and run until March 14.