PHILIP HOWARD

New directions

Philip Howard, the longest-serving artistic director of the Traverse, may have announced his departure date, but he’s determined to go out on a high with a series of ambitious new projects. He shares his vision with Steve Cramer.

s Philip Howard walks towards my

booth in the far corner of the 'l‘raverse

bar. I am reminded. not for the first time. of an linglishman abroad. at least in that sense that we foreigners are taught to think of them. There‘s something undemonstrative. self- effacing. almost buttoned down in his manner. which creates an unconscious need to somehow draw him out. Yet. it quickly emerges in conversation that Howard needs none of this. He remains a quietly self-confident man. with a genuine warmth that he allows to seep out by ration through a look. phrase or gesture. He's articulate and specific with a verbal register that moves smoothly from the technocratic phrase to an artistic discourse and on to an expletive without missing a beat. seeming to relish the effect that the juxtaposition creates on the listener.

Now the longest serving artistic director of the 'l‘rav by two years. Howard recently formalised his leaving date as the end of 2007. His presence has created a particular ‘big play. ethos at the Traverse. taking the company much further down the line of less whimsical experiment and more major productions than his predecessor Ian Brown. l‘ew artistic directors could he said to have set themselves on such a course of total dedication to a theatre.

Recently. though. there has been press criticism of what has been perceived as a relative conservatism in the 'l‘raverse's own shows. the grumbling not entirely assuaged by a THE PRODUCTIONS strong liestival showing. So the new project at

. . _ I . . . Steve Cramer talks to the companies whose work is at the centre of Traverse Cubed the liaveise. (ll/H’tl. might he seen as a

response to such criticism. A month long mini- FIFTEEN MINUTES broadsheets. but which are actually festival of events. it‘s the kind of jamboree Highway Diner are certainly the most supremer political.’ we've come to expect from The Arches. adventurous and accomplished ‘There's a lot about how to change incorporating as it does three new plays. a hatful young company of the current your life in the media now. But what it of readings. the appearance of a couple of generation in Scotland, so their implies is a change of your mind and invited young companies. exhibitions and appearance at Cubed is bound to your body, and replacing what's music. everything buzzing along in the same create a stir. Their new devised piece individual about you with something building. Yet this control led explosion of is based on JG Ballard's novel The more acceptable to a market. These creativity is not. as you might think. a leap in Atrocity Exhibit/on. a piece with a days it's quite the norm to get plastic response to the needle of criticism. but a long good deal to say about modern surgery. whereas Only ten years ago it planned project. according to Howard. conSumer society. was unu8ual. We look at the way that I remind him of the freewheeling 'l'raverse of Christopher Morgan. a member of surgery becomes a kind of addiction.’ the mid-80s. when we both experienced it for the strictly demOCratic devising company. explains explains Kelly Crow. another member of the the first time. In the old (irassmarket building. the starting point. company. The ideological point is clear. and it there was a constant rush of small scale work. “The central character is a doctor. He believes the comes from a company in their mid-20$. who are some of which proved marking points in the way he sees the world and all its chaos is somehow able to address their own generation. as Morgan history of Scottish theatre. and some of which his fault. but actually the media has become 30 points out: 'We're the generation after Generation flopped on a scale unimaginable to the 'l‘rav entrenched in his head that he can't really grasp X. We're just bored, not bOred for a reason. There's today. Is this a return to that old style'.’ reality anymore. From this premise. we're launched this whole self help generation that's sprung up. but ‘I can see exactly why it looks a return to the into a succession of the kinds of issues that are the reasons for looking into ourselves have become radical in the true sense. to the 'l‘raverse of all banished to the lifestyle sections of our extremer dubious. particularly politically.'

those years ago. Really. though. it‘s what we see

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