Les Wade: "Money in a Tobacco Warehouse: London’s Shunt Theatre and the Economics of Experimentation"

Noted by the Guardian as “the most innovative theatre company in Britain,” the Shunt Theatre Company has been offering London alternative theatre since 1998, when it began staging events in the Bethnal Green Arches.  Operating as a collective, the 10 founding members (who met in coursework at the Central School of Speech and Drama) focus on site-specific productions and create large-scale performance events in “unexpected, abandoned, or derelict buildings.” The company transferred operations to the London Bridge Vaults in 2004, and in 2010 moved into a tobacco warehouse nearby on Bermondsey Street, which housed their acclaimed production of Money (closed in November 2010).  An environmental performance piece loosely based on Emile Zola’s novel L’Argent, Money was described by company member Phillip Lloyd in laconic terms, as a work that “explore[s] the nature of money.”

                Following this working group’s CFP, my study seeks to investigate how Shunt Theatre has positioned itself in relation to the theatre economy of London.  Its recent history reveals support from the National Theatre, as Nick Hytner promoted Shunt’s Tropicana as a mean of expanding the NT audience base.  The company’s identity as a struggling entity was moreover challenged by its receipt in 2008 of a 440, 000 pound grant from the Arts Council. Described by the Independent  as a “big money move,” the company shifted operations into the Bermondsey warehouse and constructed a massive three-story Victorian-style machine (in which Money was performed).  Given the rising profile of the company, tourist promoters have noted the company shows as “can’t miss” events, especially for those visitors seeking “cool.”  One also sees the company’s involvement in the general gentrification of the London Bridge and Borough neighborhoods. The company has applied to be the “cultural resident” in the proposed One Tower Bridge Development (vying with the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, Sportworld, and the British Sport Museum for this designation).

                “Shunt” has been defined as the “process of turning aside or moving to an alternative course.”  In light of the shifting positions of British alternative theatre in recent years, the Shunt Theatre company offers an intriguing example of how an experimental, collective enterprise faces the challenges of economic flows--of public arts funding and speculative private entrepreneurship—and how it may continue (or not) to follow an alternative course.