Formed in 1992 by Artistic Director Barrie
Rutter, Northern Broadsides is a multi-award winning touring company based
in the historic Dean Clough mill in Halifax.
Northern Broadsides - Company Style
"Barrie's northern accent, fast-action, factory floor Shakespeare is as far
from elitism as can be, though it has never dumbed Shakespeare down. What
you get is the text, the poetry, the real thing, but with a northern vigour."
Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott
Northern Broadsides - a regional company with an international reputation.
Northern Broadsides' repertoire consists mainly of Shakespeare and classical
texts. These plays possess a timeless resonance and their universal explorations
of the human condition have currency in any day and age, appealing directly
to the soul, the emotions and the imagination.
From 1992, they have toured the UK and
the world with their highly distinctive performance style, including Brazil,
the USA, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, India and
Denmark.
"This modern-dress production works spectacularly well…engrossing the
audience and leaving them gasping."
The New Haven Register (Antony & Cleopatra)
"an evening of rip-roaring laughter".
The Sunday Tribune, India (The Merry Wives)
Language & The Northern Voice
Barrie Rutter's distinctive approach to theatre is fuelled by his passion
for language and his unceasing celebration of the richness and muscularity
of the Northern voice.
Northern Broadsides is a company of Northern actors who perform in their natural
voices and have an indisputable command of the language and poetry of classic
drama. The result is performance that has a directness and immediacy which
is liberating and invigorating, breaking the southern stranglehold on classical
performance and making the audience hear the words afresh.
"Shakespeare sounds terrific in authentic northern voices"
Daily Telegraph
"The Northern voice, with its short blunt vowels and tactile concrete
consonants, makes a sensual meal of language, quite unlike the icky snacking
gone in for by some of the more clipped southern accents."
The Independent
Maximum Impact, Minimum Paraphernalia
Northern Broadsides productions are unpretentious. Simple and stark, they
make the audience focus on the language. Rutter's directorial style can be
characterised by the stripping down of all the paraphernalia of theatre, taking
it down to its bare essential so that the audience's imagination can run riot.
Northern Broadsides has a reputation for performing in unconventional locations.
These stark, non-velvet spaces with their absence of stage paraphernalia add
a particular atmosphere to their work, and invite the mind to soar. An industrial
atmosphere pervades many of the productions as sets and props are magically
constructed out of the flotsam and jetsam of the underground Viaduct Theatre
where they are based. The result is simple, brilliant, visceral theatre.
Language not Psychology
The work of Northern Broadsides has sometimes been berated by critics as lacking
in psychological depth, a criticism which Barrie Rutter sweeps aside. Of the
'psychological investigation of the characters', Rutter says: "All that rubbish
has just been a fad for the last 150 years."
Northern Broadsides' work celebrates the language of the poetry, written at
a time (whether Classic or Elizabethan) when the notion of character internalisation
didn't exist. The result is theatre that brings the language to life, and
because of the brilliance of the poetry, resonates with all the universal
appeal inherent within the text.
"I don't believe in the word character. I think everything on the page is
the poet's imagination with characteristics. You play the characteristics.
I don't believe there is some psychological being somewhere up on the astral
plane, and through the process of rehearsing, we climb up the umbilical cord
towards them"
Barrie Rutter
Charisma
What distinguishes a Northern Broadsides' production is the rapport the actors
strike up with audience.
"What I like about Northern Broadsides is the exuberance and obvious pleasure
the actors have in what they are doing, and the way they communicate this
without letting it come between the play and the audience."
Audience Member
This charismatic cast of versatile performers, many of whom have been with
Northern Broadsides for years, constitute a fine ensemble company, which is
all too rare in today's current arts climate. They are also talented singers
and musicians whose infectious love for what they do is palpable. Their work
is refreshing, popular and hugely accessible.
NORTHERN BROADSIDES MAXIMUM IMPACT - MINIMUM PARAPHERNALIA
HISTORY
