The Stage

Hedley to quit Theatre Royal after 25 years as artistic director

Published Tuesday 27 January 2004 at 15:35 by Jeremy Austin

Philip Hedley is to leave his post as artistic director and chief executive at Theatre Royal, Stratford East in September after spending a quarter of a century in the role.

Hedley insisted his decision had nothing to do with recent funding battles he has had with Arts Council England or the voluntary liquidation in August of the neighbouring but separate Stratford Circus cultural quarter development.

“I do love a fight so if they had been particularly awful to me I would have stayed. It just seems enormously apt - 25 years is a very apt time to do it. My strong feeling is, well, it has been an enormous privilege to be running a theatre where the choice of work has been entirely your own,” he said.

He also praised the board for allowing him to take risks - something he feels is vital to a theatre’s survival - adding: “Over 25 years, the board has stuck solidly by, supporting the director absolutely in the choice of play. I have never been told not to do a play and when I have had controversial things, they have stuck by me.”

Hedley initially started working at the theatre in 1972 when he became assistant to both Joan Littlewood and Gerry Raffles - the legendary team that started Stratford East. He was asked to join the board, of which he eventually became chairman. He had been working as a freelance director prior to that, with his two-and-a-half years at Lincoln Theatre Royal, the longest he had served any one theatre.

“I always felt that two or three years was enough in one place. I wondered what would make me take on another theatre and it was six things - the city, the position in that city, the structure of the building, the community, how much money there was available to put on shows and the staff,” he said.

“Stratford East had five and a half and even then I turned it down a couple of times. Joan and Gerry offered it to me again and finally it appealed to me and I am very happy it did. What kept me here was the freedom to do new work and, in particular, controversial work if you felt it was necessary, and the nature of the community - the fact of the wonderful mix of cultures in the community.”

Last year, Hedley criticised ACE for what he considered to be its underfunding of the venue. It receives an annual grant of £750,000 and in 2002 received a stabilisation grant of £450,000. Its total annual income was £1.1 million but Hedley claimed it cost £1 million just to run the venue. ACE’s argument that his funding was in line with similar venues outraged Hedley, whose theatre served a community with the largest proportion of ethnic minority residents and young people in the country.

Chairman of the board Tony Hall, who is also chief executive of the Royal Opera House, said: “Philip’s vision, passion and drive have fired up the Theatre Royal for a quarter of a century. He has been a ceaseless champion of the role of Theatre Royal in particular but also of theatre in the community.

“He found people who otherwise would not have found theatre and gave them a passion for it. Everyone who has been associated with the Theatre Royal - artists, staff and audience - owes Philip a great, great deal.”

Hedley, who is to be given the title Director Emeritus at the venue, said he will continue to be lobby for the theatre industry as a whole and is also keen to work with the Stratford East to develop further Da Boyz - his project of seven years that set The Boys of Syracuse to urban music and was a hit at the venue last year.

He added that he had been given an assurance by the board that his successor would be committed to the founding principles of the theatre.