On Tuesday of this week, we enjoyed a fabulous Bruntwood Prize Panel Discussion on ‘What Makes a Great Play?’ in the beautiful surroundings of Wilton’s Music Hall in London. In partnership with Times+, the event was chaired by critic Libby Purves with playwrights David Eldridge, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Roy Williams and the Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre Josie Rourke. Listen to the discussion and questions from the audience below. With thanks to Wilton’s Music Hall for the recording. Expletives not deleted.
Josie Rourke, Roy Williams, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, David Eldridge and Libby Purves
What Makes a Great Play? – Bruntwood Prize Panel Discussion by royalexchange
Read Jo Caird’s blog about the discussion on Whatsonstage.com, here.
I enjoyed this event, but could have done without Libby Purves’ rather W.I. jam-making manner. It was a bit like sitting in on one of her slightly grating Midweek Radio 4 chat shows, abnd I wish she’d followed up some of the more interesting points Josie, Rebecca, Roy and David were making. On the positive side, all the guests were refreshingly open-minded and non-prescriptive about the weird alchemy of writing and directing plays. They know from real experience that if there were a formula then be no need for a Bruntwood Prize.
I was surprised on Libby’s remark about the film Brief Encounter being made into a stage piece, but it was a stage piece by Noel Coward originally called Still Life before it was made into a film – twice.
Another point, I found the sound quality when interviewing the audience truly awful as it was so difficult to understand what they were saying. Originally, they were faint but clear enough then another system appeared to be used which brought up the volume but created too much echo.
Just listened to the podcast and found it so helpful and interesting. I thought Libby Purves did a great job of holding it all together and guiding it seamlessly. Great event – wish I could have been there.
I completely agree! I found it incredibly frustrating that every time one of the guests started giving us their insights into the actual topic of ‘what makes a great play’ she’d cut them off mid speech and get moving onto one of her other mediocre questions. Were we really there to hear about director/writer fallouts? No! Well I wasn’t anyway. It’s a shame it couldn’t have been a writer chairing the event! Oh well, like you said the guests were very inspiring.
Hi, great discussion! Is there any way that this podcast could be downloaded?
Thanks for your question. Unfortunately the file is too large to make it available as a download. Hope you enjoy listening to it and apologies to those who find the questions difficult to hear. That’s a product of the acoustic with the mic used for the audience on the night.
I attended the actual event and thought it was fantastic, Libby Purves was very organised with her questions, and all the guests had great tips and stories to share. Having just spent 2 days at a very mediocre writing weekend where the interviewers sat on stage and asked the audience for questions as they hadn’t organised anything themselves, I found this a breath of fresh air.
I attended the talk in person as well. I just wanted to mention that even though I found the session enjoyable, I do feel the moderator didn’t really focus the panelists on the topic of “What makes a great play”. She got them talking about their careers and their personal ups and downs, which was very interesting to hear, but not really what I was expecting. Still, I think the moderator did a very good job of keeping things moving during the evening and the Q&A portion was also a treat.