We sat down with Alastair Whatley, Artistic Director of Original Theatre, and Director of the 2024/25 tour of Birdsong. Original Theatre are a Suffolk-based theatre company who kicked off their 20th anniversary year celebrations in November with a screening of Original At Last – a short documentary which offered the unique opportunity to delve into the rich history of one of the UK’s most dynamic and exciting theatre companies.

What inspired the creation of Original At Last, and how do you hope it will resonate with audiences as you launch your 20th anniversary season?

Running a theatre company these past 20 years can perhaps be likened to climbing a mountain with a summit that always appears out of reach. You reach what you think may be the top only to suddenly see a huge expanse of unchartered space higher and further before you. Yet after 20 years I thought it might be good to just take a moment and look back at what is behind us, the highs and lows, the  peaks and troughs and just reflect on the journey we have made and the people who have travelled with us. 

The 20th anniversary season features new writing, epic adaptations, and rare revivals. How did you go about curating such a diverse lineup that reflects the company’s legacy and vision?

We wanted to put forward a real programme that as you say offers a diverse and varied mix of the work we make. Some of it fell into place almost by happenstance but as we cohered our vision for the 20th year celebrations, I was adamant that the bulk of our programme stuck to our ethos of being a touring company. Thus, we announced three big touring shows but also showed the strength of our touring shows by finding berths in some fantastic (and varied) London theatres from Alexandra Palace Theatre to Jermyn Street Theatre.

With the success of past productions like Birdsong, what unique elements does this new adaptation bring to audiences, particularly for its upcoming London run at Alexandra Palace Theatre?

To me this production of Birdsong stands apart from our previous production not just in terms of design and cast but most notably because of the adaptation itself which Rachel but also Sebastian and I have laboured hard on these past years. Structurally it is completely different with a taut three-act structure that somehow conveys for me perhaps more faithfully the novel.

We are all excited to bring the show to Alexandra Palace Theatre. It is a space worthy of epic stories and I know my design team cannot wait to get to play and work in that space. There is huge potential for the show to work brilliantly in this special venue.

The revival of The Importance of Being Oscar is noteworthy, especially as it commemorates 125 years since Oscar Wilde’s death. What challenges and rewards come with staging such an iconic work, and what sets this production apart from others?

What makes it special I think is that the play is uniquely personal to both Wilde but also to the writer and original performer MacLiammoir himself who wrote the play 60 years after Wilde’s death. Some 60 years from the death of MacLiammoir the play is at once a conversation with Wilde but also one with MacLiammoir’s whose original play helped propel a revival in Wilde’s rehabilitation. 

To stage the play in the heart of Wilde country – Piccadilly – seems apt. To stage the play in the intimate environs of Jermyn Street Theatre seems the perfect space for Mike Fentiman’s production but most importantly staging the play in 2025 allows us all to both look back but also in as we examine and explore the rich, brilliant, dark and ultimately tragic legacy of Wilde and his influence which still stands buoyant and daring some 125 years after his death.

Your upcoming thriller Murder at Midnight follows in the footsteps of Murder in the Dark. How do you approach maintaining the suspense and originality in a series of thrillers that continues to engage your audience?

Torben Betts is a real talent. A maverick voice who has straddled many forms over the years. I am greatly enjoying working with this latest incarnation from the thriller writer who has mined a rich vein of form in how he was taken one genre and sort of mashed it up with other creating – dare I say it- something rather original. 

Murder at Midnight is shaping up really well. It exists in the same world as Murder in the Dark but is a brand new story, new characters, brilliantly funny and as ever complete with some great shocks and surprises. We have worked with Torben multiple times over almost 10 years and it is a relationship that is really important to us. We want to champion writers and bring their work to audiences all over the country. I am very proud that we have managed to achieve that with Torben and his work.

Reflecting on two decades of producing theatre, especially navigating through the pandemic and pioneering digital theatre with Original Online, what have been the most significant lessons learned, and how do they inform your approach to future productions?

Never give up! As prosaic as that may sound it is also a mantra which we have stuck to repeatedly. Making theatre is hard. Touring theatre is harder. Making good touring theatre without subsidy is harder still. And finding an audience for good touring theatre is almost impossible. Almost.

The advent of digital theatre and our investment in this has been a surprising turn brought on us by the pandemic but it has opened a whole new oeuvre for us. From creating a platform to building our own audience to making films and winning awards all over the world – none of which we ever imagined doing at the start of 2020. Yet the digital space has allowed us to really commit to the original ethos of the company which began in 2004, 20 years ago, that being to make original work and share it as widely as possible. Digital allows us to share our work with audiences literally in all four corners of the globe. It’s been some journey from a small garden in a village outside Bury St Edmunds but 20 years on Original feels like it is just getting going. There are more mountains to climb yet.

Original Theatre’s Birdsong tour continues until March 2025, with a run at Alexandra Palace Theatre from 27 February – 8 March 2025.