Exclusive:The Scottish theatre bringing 'powerful' new plays to people's living rooms, kitchens and gardens
The Lyceum Theatre is to perform new plays in people’s homes.
It has been an icon of the Edinburgh theatre scene for almost 150 years, with a grand city centre auditorium seating more than 650 audience members.
Now, the Royal Lyceum Theatre is to downsize its audience capacity significantly - when it takes its latest plays to be performed in living rooms, kitchens and gardens across the city.
New initiative Lyceum at Home will involve four newly-commissioned 30-minute plays by Scottish writers, which will be taken to homes of local people all over Edinburgh - as well as to community centres and workplaces.
This comes as the theatre unveiled its programme for the coming season. Highlights include the already-announced world premiere of a musical of David Nicolls novel One Day, as well as a production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, starring Jonathan Creek star Caroline Quentin.
James Brining’s first season as artistic director will also include Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, a Dundee Rep Theatre production in association with the soon-to-be reopened Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, and a Christmas production of Cinderella: A Fairytale, directed by Tron Theatre’s artistic director, Jemima Levick.
The Lyceum at Home initiative is part of the 60th-anniversary celebrations of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company. The theatre said the plays will reflect the lives, choices and everyday moments that make Edinburgh and would widen its reach across the Scottish capital and “build on the bonds and relationships which connect us all”.
Mr Brining said: “I was really keen to make a statement about our interest in the whole of the city. We're based right in the heart of Edinburgh, but we want to reach out to people and communities across the whole of Edinburgh. We're doing this project that will involve four short new plays, and we're going to take them out into people's houses.”
Mr Brining said he had worked on a similar initiative when working at the Playhouse Theatre in Leeds, when actors performed to as few as five people in a residential home.
The Lyceum at Home project is due to launch later this year.
“It's a really interesting project,” he said. “We will actually take plays into living rooms and have people invite neighbours, friends, family, whatever, to come and see these shows. It’s a brilliant, low-key thing.
“It's a statement of our interest in being involved with the city in as wide a way as we can, without compromising the work we do in the theatre. It’s a beautiful, important part of the culture.”
Associate artistic director Zinnie Harris said: “For the past 60 years, The Royal Lyceum has been at the heart of Edinburgh's cultural life, creating theatre and inspiring audiences with work that is deeply rooted in Scottish culture and community.
“Now we want to spread this work into the community, bringing powerful performances and storytelling into Edinburgh residences homes. Whether it's a living room, a garden or your office we want to give everyone in the city an opportunity to experience the works of some of Scotland's leading writers.”
Details of how to enter a ballot to have one of the plays performed in a home or workplace will be released in due course.
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