I auditioned some great drama school graduates today who had missed out on their final shows due to Covid. One of them asked why we had stopped producing shows specifically for adults and it was a good question. The truth is our current policy is better characterised as a ‘pause’ in producing adult shows, while we concentrate on what has always been a hallmark of BSC – our family shows. Indeed, our first major hit in our first year was a Roald Dahl show in 1992, which we performed at The Old Rep in Birmingham which had been professionally dark for twenty years. We were stunned to sell 17,500 tickets (for a theatre that only seated 378 people) and so it became apparent that this was going to be an important part of our success. It wasn’t too many years before our Christmas shows were playing to 40,000 people in this 378 seat theatre. Twenty years later we decided to concentrate on family shows so we could take them to the next level, and after ten years in the West End and record-breaking national tours, we’re proud about what has been achieved. But as it happens, I have just started writing my first adult play. So the next couple of years may see the reintroduction of adult work into our repertoire, which will be a fun new adventure for us all!
18 May 2022