Building trust

I’ve been wanting to introduce my friends to some of the edgy, alternative theatre productions by the kind of touring production company I often meet through my work. I’ve had some amazing, imaginative or mind-changing experiences at this type of performance – while sometimes the well-funded, slick productions at the big, establishment theatres come across as turgid, or at least unsurprising.

But, my companions are not necessarily so welcoming of risk.  So when I saw that the Southbank Centre’s Winter Festival included shows that read as imaginative and whimsical, seemingly designed to appeal to adults as well as families, and referencing a blend of artforms in their make-up, I thought this was the perfect stamp of approval to encourage friends to come along.

In marketing and audience development with clients, we’re always stressing that the secret to building audiences for new, experimental productions is to engage the trust of your regular audiences so they will come with you on the journey into the new ‘because it’s you’.  That’s the relationship I thought I had with the Southbank.

Instead, out of the two performances we attended, one (Murmurs) delivered the anticipated ‘fairy-tale’ quality and empathetic leaps of imagination that certainly did, for me, conjure up the horrors of moving house. I’ll never view bubble wrap in the same way again. The delivery was wobbly, in places, but we felt forgiving in the face of the overall charm of the performers and a particularly breath-holding example of circus skills – and because it was only an hour or so long. There were children in the audience, which seemed appropriate – but the larger number of adults without children found enchantment in it too.

The second production we tried really broke the trust compact. Yes, I guess we sort of realised from the flyer it was going to be a bit-off-the wall, fun and silly, and that it would draw on animation, puppets and other skills. It’s Christmas! But we didn’t at all think we were paying for a performance more suited to being toured to primary schools in term time. The price (£20), time (7.45pm) and predominantly adult audience seemed to suggest our reading of the Southbank Centre’s brochure hadn’t been too off the mark – but the production was. It had some clever ideas, sure and some amusing tricks. The blending of film, animation, old-fashioned sound effects and the rest was interesting. And the beautifully-printed, giveaway booklet that both extended the fictional world and aimed to explain how it was created was … unusual. But the narrative line was muddled, over-complicated, full of knowing references to the art world alongside schoolboy jokes. It just wasn’t very well done. And, at an hour or so, yawningly long. Even my companions questioned why the Southbank Centre hadn’t vetted the show for quality. So when, at the end, the actor announced that this may be their final production due to the ending of ACE funding for the company, for once I thought ‘maybe ACE has a point’.