Interview: PAUL HART on being appointed as the new Artistic Director at the Watermill

Stepping into Hedda Beeby's shoes, Paul Hart is The Watermill's new Artistic and Executive Director. Originally hailing from Kent, he has been working in London with the likes of the National Theatre, National Youth Theatre, Propeller and Donmar Warehouse. Bringing energy and a new direction, his ambition is to put the theatre on the map for original works that can be adapted for venues across the country.

What do you make of The Watermill so far?

The Watermill is not new to me - my love affair with the theatre began when I was at college. I came to see musicals and Shakespeare here and discovered the actor/musician style for which the theatre is known.

I worked as an assistant director here for Propeller, redirecting major touring productions for this very specific space in an afternoon. I got to know its potential and limitations pretty quickly - we quickly discovered that Richard III would be a bit of squeeze, when we demolished part of the theatre on our first preview!

I was lucky enough to be asked back to direct further productions here, and I'm so excited to be taking up this new role. The thing I want to make sure is that it remains a theatre for all. We are going to create brilliant work here that I hope will be recognised on a national and international level, and make sure that the community surrounding it has a strong influence shaping the way that happens.

What can audiences expect from this first season and beyond?

I can guarantee that our work will always be innovative. Here at The Watermill, we can do something that no other theatre in the UK can - we have a unique setting and surroundings and a reputation for original work, which I intend to nurture.

I think it's really important for the audience here to have a varied diet of theatre. I want to bring completely new writing to the theatre, as well as exciting adaptations. You're going to see things that you never thought could happen in this small space!

I'm also passionate about new, inventive and ground-breaking musicals. I want the next generation of musical writers to find support here.

Where does The Watermill's traditional actor/musician ethos fit in with your plans?

It is a remarkable space for live music. I remember being stood, leaning on the back wall of The Watermill, when a double bass note reverberated through the whole building and my whole body. The theatre has sensational acoustics and is like an instrument in itself. It's made for this kind of theatre.

I want to tackle musicals and drama dissecting the way in which live music can be used onstage. I intend the theatre to be the epicentre of new approaches in the way in which music and text combine, and will be working with well-known composers to achieve that.

What do you have lined up for the new Spring/Summer season?

Romeo and Juliet, set in a bar and casting actors from the National Youth Theatre, is one of my first productions. It will have all the energy of youth to it and I want it to feel like a gig, listening to invigorating music and falling in love. It's a new way to access such a well-known story.

We'll be reviving Alan Bennett's Untold Stories following the production at the National and the West End. The combination of his two short memoirs Hymn and Cocktail Sticks will be seen close up with a string quartet onstage in the intimate surroundings of The Watermill.

I have also found a fantastic adaptation of Watership Down, by Rona Munro and that will be coming later in the Spring. It captures the excitement of the journey from the rabbits' perspective, with plenty of dramatic potential, and there is an added link with the real Watership Down being so close by.

The Watermill's new Spring Summer season is on general sale from 9 November, and to Friends of The Watermill from 2 November.

www.watermill.org.uk or call 01635 46044.

Hart's inagural season at the Watermill features:

ROMEO AND JULIET

By William Shakespeare

25 February - 2 April

A powerful and explosive new production of Shakespeare's immortal tale of an all-consuming love. Risking everything, a young couple defy their feuding families and find love on the streets of Verona. This unforgettable production, directed by The Watermill Theatre's new Artistic Director, Paul Hart and casting in collaboration with The National Youth Theatre, features live music and an outstanding new ensemble of young actors bursting onto The Watermill stage. Paul's directed for Propeller and The Donmar. He also directed The Essay for BBC Radio 3 and productions including Great Expectations, Journey's End and The Tempest for The Watermill Theatre.

ONE MILLION TINY PLAYS ABOUT BRITAIN

By Craig Taylor

12 - 23 April

Overheard conversations from across the length and breadth of the country form Craig Taylor's humorous and poignant look at modern Britain in One Million Tiny Plays About Britain. Laugh-out-loud funny, and sometimes heartbreakingly moving, these miniature insights into other people's lives reveal the triumphs, disasters, horrors and joys of life in the twenty-first century. Originally published in The Guardian, this collage of scenes now form a hugely entertaining and addictive evening in the theatre. It will change the way you listen to the world around you, and train journeys will never be the same again.

UNTOLD STORIES

HYMN and COCKTAIL STICKS

By Alan Bennett

5 May - 11 June

Warm, witty and poignant, Untold Stories is a double bill of memoirs from one of the nation's most successful yet self-effacing playwrights, whose work for the stage includes The History Boys and The Madness of King George. In Hymn, a play set to live music by George Fenton, Bennett recalls the hymns and music that underscored his childhood and, with great affection, his father, a violin-playing butcher. Glimpses of his early life with Mam and Dad are shared in Cocktail Sticks. Mam seeks enlightenment from the pages of Woman's Own, and Dad, who in an effort to earn a few extra bob, upgrades to a double bass, but is thwarted when it won't fit through the doors of the tram. These humorous and touching recollections from the multi-award winning playwright are performed in repertoire.

WATERSHIP DOWN

Based on the book by Richard Adams

Adapted by Rona Munro

16 June - 23 July

This stirring tale of courage and survival against the odds has become one of the best-loved adventures of all time. It is brought to life in the heart of the countryside that inspired Richard Adam's epic book which sold over fifty million copies worldwide. In award-winning playwright Rona Munro's gripping adaptation, the long and perilous journey of a small band of rabbits in search of a safe home finally leads them to Watership Down, but here they face their most difficult challenge of all...

Rona Munro is the writer behind the critically acclaimed James Plays trilogy recently staged at the National Theatre. Her adaptation of Watership Down brings an inventiveness and energy to this classic tale enjoyed across the generations.

The Watermill Senior Youth Theatre presents

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN

By Edith Nesbit

Adapted by Beth Flintoff

6 - 9 April

Edith Nesbit's classic adventure is brought vividly to life by The Watermill's Senior Youth Theatre. Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter are three ordinary London children whose lives are turned upside down when their father disappears. Transported to a new life in a rural village, the children discover the railway on their doorstep, and life becomes one long adventure, filled with the faces of people who work and travel on the trains. But the memory of their father never leaves them, and with it their longing for him to be brought home. But children can't solve the problems of the grown-ups - or can they?

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