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THEATRE


Godwin


DIAL OGUE WITH


Godwin says that the writers are central to work at the Royal Court – especially given its commitment to supporting new talent.


“I have an in-depth dialogue with the writer because it’s the first time the play will have been done and there are therefore many questions no one has ever asked before,” he explains. “It means there is quite a close dialogue between Lucy and me, but it also means in this case that I am always trying to put her vision before my own. The question is really how to interpret it in a way so the production is a window into the soul of the play.”


Godwin has been an associate director at the venue since April 2011. He is motivated by the theatre’s policy of producing new, adventurous work written by a range of playwrights. “We get about 4,500 new plays a year through our doors so choosing those plays is really difficult,” he says. “They have to be written today and they have to be about today and then what we really try and think about is how to reflect the biggest cross-section of audiences that we can. Because everyone in the country is helping – through their taxes – to pay for the


Royal Court, we’ve got to be very clear that the plays we are doing are reflecting everybody. The very best way of doing that is to put on plays by writers who are themselves from different communities.” Godwin thinks the key to discovering a hit is to seek new voices, no matter how risky that may be. “We have been fortunate enough to have had a few plays that have been commercially successful like Jumpy, like Jerusalem, like Clybourne Park,” he says. “But the danger is that you try and replicate something. Of course, as soon as you do that, you’ll go down a cul-de-sac of familiar work. “Sometimes the things that sell best are the most amazing and new things, so if we stick to our aim of discovering new voices, new plays, urgent issues, actually that can go hand in hand with commercial success.”


NSFW is at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, from October 25 to November 24. Tickets £28, £20, £12, Mondays all tickets £10. T: 020 7565 5000.


Simon Godwin Photo: Johan Persson 51


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