Original Theatre, the Suffolk-based theatre company at the forefront of both the UK’s live touring and digital theatre scenes, will kick off its 20th anniversary year celebrations this November. We spoke to Artistic Director Alistair Whatley ahead of this milestone.

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Original Theatre. Can you tell us what led you to set up the company?

I set the company up in the summer of 2004 before my last year at University. Various myths have sprung up as to reasons and motivations behind it; the famous one being that it was a bet with the drama society at Royal Holloway University, another being it was just a practical joke that went wrong. Yet the truth is probably far more prosaic and springs from a genuine belief in the importance of touring theatre to a wide audience. That first show Twelfth Night, for its many challenges, toured to all four corners of the UK (and by corners that is meant literally - we went as far as you could to the end of the road!). That passion for touring remains undimmed 20 years later.

The documentary film ‘Original At Last’ looks back at the last twenty years. What was your favourite moment to relive?

The director Tristan [McShepherd] took me back to The Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds where we staged our first show. It is the town where I grew up and spent many days in my teenage years before returning to stage outdoor Shakespeare. Twenty years on, it is unchanged. It was wonderful to reflect back on those shows which seemed so big and ambitious to us in the first few years.

Original Theatre's new season showcases a range of plays in different genres. How do you decide which plays to produce?

We try and follow our noses and produce plays that excite us first and foremost. We hope if they excite us, then they will excite our audiences. The art is then to try and match the play to the audience. Wherever possible we try and share the work as widely as we can from big theatres like Newcastle Theatre Royal or Alexandra Palace in London to more intimate spaces like The Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds and Jermyn Street Theatre in London.

Of course, our digital platform has now meant we can present other peoples work all over the world and the thrill of this has meant that we have been able to open up collaborations with fellow producers and theatres such as Hampstead Theatre, Riverside Studios and The Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh.

In 2020, Original Online was set up. What has been the most striking difference between producing online and traditional content?

There are two parts to that answer - the first being back in 2020 when producing online content was almost like starting all over again. We made theatre in a way that it had never been made before (and we hope will never need to be made like that again!) It allowed us to produce stories that we would normally never dream of being able to - it literally opened things up for us from making Zombie Horror films in a deserted council estate in Lewisham, to a lifeboat rescue story complete with helicopter rescue all shot live in a church hall in Kennington, to recreating the famous Apollo 13 mission entirely from home in the summer of 2020.

Yet a few years on, in the here and now of 2024, the producing of our digital work is now much more in sync with our live work. One feeds the others. We try and film all our shows now and with that experience, we have got much more attuned to the nuance of filming live work, thanks to the work of our associate Tristan McShepherd. It has also allowed us also to go in and curate work by producing other peoples' shows and presenting those on our platform. There is a real joy in finding a wider audience for shows.

Original Theatre's company has performed in a vast array of spaces, from gardens to cruise liners. What venues have provided the most unique experiences, and is there somewhere you would love to see an Original Theatre production in the future?

We have played I think nearly 200 different spaces over the last 20 years, and I’m sure we’ve not managed to remember them all! I won’t forget taking Being Mr Wickham abroad the Queen Mary II on a transatlantic crossing in gale force cross winds and high seas. Half the boat was confined to their cabins, the ship rolled, but the show went on, albeit at a list of 20 degrees. 

Filming Into the Night, the story about the Penlee lifeboat disaster, was an extraordinary day. It was a live action film with a live audience who were part of that action. It featured a helicopter rescue, a sinking ship, water and multiple cameras. It was unbelievably ambitious and ultimately got cancelled due to the Omicron Covid outbreak in December 2021. We released the technical rehearsal (recorded only by chance) and that went on to win all sorts of awards. Yet the feeling of nervous excitement and the sense we were on the brink of something extraordinary was palpable. I will always wonder what might have been with that one.

Looking to the future, I would love us to do some wider touring to Europe, Asia and Australasia. New adventures and new audiences. However, I hope we never move away from our work touring the UK with the many friends and colleagues we have picked up all over the country these past two decades. Long may that continue.

For details of the Original Theatre 20th Anniversary season, please click here.