From Sheffield (Graham) to Sheffield (City)….

Only the other day I was saying that “The arts, of course, are about people more than they are about buildings, and Sheffield has proved that you can even make a difficult one work”. I was talking there about Graham Sheffield, artistic director of the Barbican Centre, not Sheffield the city; but today I am writing from the latter, and the same holds true here, where first Michael Grandage and then Sam West have galvanised the fortunes of the Crucible Theatre to make it one of the most consistently interesting theatres in the country. I came here last night to see Jonathan Miller’s new production of The Cherry Orchard – his first UK stage production for a decade – and if the curmudgeonly old man of the British theatre is notoriously as thin-skinned about criticism of himself as he is voluble about making his own judgements of others, he proves here that it is, ultimately, the work that counts. And Sheffield have indeed been lucky to secure his services.

As they were of Sam West, as Grandage’s successor. But as I blogged here in December, he is leaving after just two years in post. As I wrote at the time, he “was an intriguing choice for the post, since he had never run a theatre before, and had directed comparatively little as well… But Sam, who like Mark Rylance at Shakespeare’s Globe, was a popular classical actor who knew how to galvanise the troops; and he made some bold artistic statements, such as his early decision to give Howard Brenton’s The Romans in Britain its first major revival since the original highly controversial National Theatre production in 1980. He also provided one of this year’s most powerful and poignant evenings when he was joined by his father Timothy in Caryl Churchill’s A Number – to play father and son(s) in this extraordinary play about the genetic cloning.”

The achievements have stretched beyond Sheffield – as Sam notes in his final programme note, “I’m proud that many of our shows are being seen outside the city. As You Like It played to full houses in the Swan in Stratford; The Caretaker transferred to the Tricycle in London and Don’t Look Now has just opened at the Lyric Hammersmith.” Here was a local theatre clearly being put on a national and even international map.

The official reason for his departure was the Crucible’s closure for refurbishment from January 2008 to March 2009. But as I also noted here back in December, that should not have been a surprise to West, “or at least I hope not – he should have been an active and integral part of those plans. In any case, it doesn’t mean the work had to stop. During the Young Vic’s two-year refurbishment, for instance, David Lan became building manager as well as making sure that the company kept its profile high with its ‘Walkabout’ season elsewhere, doing some 22 shows at 41 different venues. The Arts Council’s Christopher Frayling, who had recommended a shut-down during the refurbishment, ate his words publicly on the opening night, saying that it had been a huge success to keep its work going over that period.”

I have heard that West put it to the board that the Crucible should do the same thing, but those plans were rejected. He was left with no choice but to go. But as Benedict Nightingale noted in his review of The Cherry Orchard in The Times yesterday, the production is “not only admirably detailed by good enough to leave one feeling fearful. What’s the Crucible’s future after its renovation starts and its director, Sam West, leaves? Let’s hope the nation’s most enterprising regional theatre doesn’t lose its artistic momentum.”

That’s a momentum that has born fruit not just on the stage, but also in the audience: I have never seen the Crucible as packed as it was last night on a cold, wintry Wednesday evening. It proves there is a hunger and appetite for this kind of work – though it probably helps to have Joanna Lumley in the cast to bring in the punters, too.