Guest Blog: 'It's Our Biggest Year to Date': Matthew Eames, Head of Theatres at The Lowry, on the Importance of Its Commissioning Programme

The Lowry does not produce its own theatre work so commissioning is our way to support the creation of new theatre productions and ensure that the very best and most exciting artists and companies come to Salford and the North West (and then beyond!)

Commissioning can mean initiating, instigating or investing in new theatre projects - investing in a project at an early stage is often the difference between a project happening or not. When The Lowry backs a project this can encourage others to support a new work financially too.

As with our theatre programme, Lowry commissions bridge both the commercial and independent theatre sectors, embracing artforms from dance to new musicals to contemporary theatre and circus, at all scales.

In 2023 The Lowry is commissioners or co-commissioners on a wide and diverse range of productions including Rambert's Peaky Blinders, Complicite's Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead, Far From the Norm's Mama, the new musical dance show Cake, Sadler's Wells' Message in a Bottle, Operation Mincemeat by SpitLip as well as this week's Bert and Nasi world premiere The Beginning.

It's our biggest year for commissioning work to date which is very exciting!

Our programme is richer thanks to the diversity of artists and companies and stories on our stages. They all need to start somewhere and as a non-producing theatre it makes sense for us to place our focus and resources on supporting the development of new work and emerging/mid-career artists through our commissioning and artist development programmes.

This means we can ensure our programme remains exciting, fresh and relevant to our audiences. We are also an arts centre - not just a theatre - so we need works that reflect all of the performing arts. Dance and Contemporary Circus projects can often only be initiated with the help of commissioning venues like The Lowry.

Without our support there would be a real risk that the most exciting new productions would not be seen outside of London. We know that attracting public funding or commercial investment is becoming increasingly difficult. There is simply not enough money to go around. There is a huge threat that mid-career artists who have critically recognised work and loyal audiences, but are not NPOs, will leave the industry in the next two-three years. This would be a huge loss. This will definitely inform our commissioning approach over the next few years.

Our commissioned work reflects our artistic vision as an organisation and speaks to our commitments as a publicly funded organisation. We are equally proud of our curated commercial programme and benefit from strong relationships in that sector. Without it, we would not be able to commission. They work together, hand in hand, balanced carefully - there is not one without the other.

Our audiences expect to see both commercial and innovative new, contemporary theatre at The Lowry and they often converge - as with Peaky Blinders and many others - that is the dream!

Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is at Birmingham Hippodrome from 23 May - 27 May and Operation Mincemeat is currently running at the Fortune Theatre. Mama is currently touring and Message in a Bottle is touring from 11 May.

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