The Everyman is back. And back as a tour de force. After 10 years of planning and two years of rebuilding, Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre has reopened with Twelfth Night and set a benchmark that will take some beating. And if it continues to maintain the standard then the Liverpool Everyman can once again be the innovative centre of theatre in the United Kingdom.
After years of struggling with cramped dressing rooms, limited technical facilities and inadequate rehearsal areas, the Everyman took the radical decision to close and rebuild. It was a daring decision, given that for two years it would leave many pining its disappearance. Over the years, the Everyman has given birth to the Liverpool poets, cultivated new playwrights, encouraged young, unknown actors, put on innovative productions and given opportunities to homegrown talents such as Willy Russell, Alan Bleasdale and David Morrisey. It also offered breaks to others such as Trevor Nunn, Julie Walters and Jonathan Pryce. But the Everyman has always been more than just a theatre; it’s also a community and a meeting point for so many in Liverpool, its bistro regarded as the best eatery in town, so conveniently located between the city’s two universities and cathedrals.
The appeal of the Everyman also was that it was slightly rough, informal, and not the kind of place where you went to be seen. The dilemma for the architects was to design a new theatre that would look and be little different from the original. Happy to say, they have largely succeeded. The auditorium is much the same with seating for 400, just eight more than before, and in precisely the same shape and mode. The only real changes are to the bars, café and bistro, all of which are more modern and formal.
Twelfth Night was perhaps not the obvious choice for the reopening. Why go for a traditional classic when the city has so many of its own talented playwrights? But no worries, new Liverpool-based productions are in the pipeline to be staged later this spring. Twelfth Night can be something of a conundrum: on the one hand, a comedy; on the other, a comment about cruelty and joke-playing, and in this production the latter was more than emphasised, Malvolio departing the stage a broken man, promising that he will have his revenge “on all of you”.
Gemma Bodinetz’s production is delightfully staged with a stunning opening sequence when the drowning Viola and her rescuer Antonio, rise drenched to the skin, from a sunken water pit. That apart, the settings are minimal but the action is always packed with energy. Matthew Kelly as Sir Toby Belch is an affable, drunken old rogue, played with charm and wit, while Pauline Daniels as Maria is as scheming as she can be lovable. Belch’s sidekick, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, played with style by Adam Keast, brings just the right blend of comedy and innocence. It’s hard to fault any of the performances in what is a riotous production of fun and fizz. If there is a question mark, it’s over the length. At three hours, it takes some stamina to watch, let alone act in, and could certainly do with a little pruning.
With so many theatres up and down the land closing or cutting back as arts funding is slashed, the opening of a new theatre is to be applauded. It may generally be a depressing time for the arts, but in Liverpool the combination of the Everyman with its £28 million revamp and its sister theatre, the Playhouse, give hope that although the regions may be starved of cash, they are certainly not short on exciting culture.
