The Week in Light & Sound
- Details
Backstage Wages - Backstage and FOH staff are being urged to vote in favour of a pay offer from West End managements that is less than half the increase they originally demanded. In August, backstage and front-of-house union BECTU announced it was seeking a one-year deal for West End theatre staff that included a 9% pay rise. At the time, BECTU said it had submitted an ambitious claim that was justified by the increasing cost of living in the capital.
However, after "intensive" negotiations with the Society of London Theatre at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service failed to secure an agreement, members will now be balloted on a significantly reduced proposal.
It sets out a 3.5% increase for 2017/18, and the same again for the following year, with a 2.5% rise in 2019/20. Under the offer, the third year's deal would be subject to the Consumer Prices Index inflation rate to be announced in September 2019. If CPI varies by more than 0.5% in either direction, the offer will be adjusted accordingly.
BECTU is describing the deal as an "improved offer". Assistant national secretary Helen Ryan said: "It's a gamble from both sides, but it does afford some protection in times of uncertainty."
Home and Away - Morrissey has announced his first full UK tour since 2015 - but has caused a stir by leaving out his hometown. It appears the man who once sang Oh Manchester, so much to answer for still holds a grudge against the city following the announcement on his recently created Twitter page. The former Smiths frontman published a video to reveal shows in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, Brighton and London's Royal Albert Hall and Alexandra Palace. He will also play the 3Arena in Dublin.
Board Decision - Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice’s 1984 musical Chess is to run in the West End next year. Chess will show at the London Coliseum for a limited run from 26 April to 2 June 2018. The original production, written by Abba songwriters Andersson, Ulvaeus and Rice, ran in 1986 at the Prince Edward Theatre in London and starred Elaine Paige.
Emotional Response - Seeing a play live does not evoke a significantly stronger emotional response than watching it in the cinema, according to a project that monitored theatregoers' heart rates. Reactions to live theatre, a cinema screening and a filmed, 360-degree virtual reality experience were found to be roughly comparable in a new study of Shakespeare performance.
The heart rates of 107 audience members watching the Royal Shakespeare Company's Titus Andronicus raised above average roughly the same amount across all three media, and increased to the level of a cardio workout for an average of five minutes across each performance. Audience members were wired up to heart-rate monitors for a performance of the famously gory tragedy, in what was billed as the first-time direct comparisons have been made between the emotional response to live theatre and cinema screenings.
While the study showed little difference in audience members' heart rates across different media while watching the performances, this was not mirrored in their responses gathered from a series of post-show feedback sessions. The project, conducted by the RSC with Ipsos Mori, found that, overall, live theatre audiences were most positive about their experience. They also indicated they felt more empathy and shock.
Homecoming - Sting is to bring his Broadway musical The Last Ship to his home city of Newcastle for its UK premiere. He created the show as a tribute to the shipbuilding community where he grew up in Wallsend. But it lasted just three months on Broadway in 2014 and 15 after mixed reviews and lacklustre ticket sales. It will be revived at Northern Stage in March 2018, starring Jimmy Nail, who appeared in the Broadway version, before a UK and Irish tour. The Last Ship will be directed by Northern Stage's artistic director Lorne Campbell and will visit 11 cities after Newcastle.
(Jim Evans)
