• Forty Years On:The Funding Conundrum at The Finborough
• Sue Healy (bio)

London's Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat fringe venue with a noted history of attracting emerging playwrights such as James Graham, Mark Ravenhill, and Laura Wade, who have progressed to become voices of national and international standing. By identifying, fostering, and providing a first platform for playwrights of promise, the Finborough's importance within the ecology of contemporary London theatre has frequently and consistently been recognized and lauded by leading industry figures in the UK.¹

Founded in 1980, the Finborough is a diminutive playhouse which presents plays, old and new, and very occasionally musical theatre. Its aim is to equally divide its focus between thought-provoking text-based new writing and the rediscovery of neglected works from the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The theatre boasts an impressive track record of accomplishment and achievement in this area, yet the Finborough is not a National Portfolio Organization (an organization in receipt of public funding, referred to as an NPO). As such, the theatre has had to operate with little or no funding for the entirety of its history.²

The Finborough has now seen forty years in continuous operation, the recent Covid-19 lockdown notwithstanding.³ The theatre is a multiaward winning and important London venue. Regular commentary from prominent UK theatre industry members illustrates this fact and demonstrates that the Finborough is widely recognized as an important venue on the theatrical landscape. It is broadly considered to "punch above its weight."⁴ In 2010, referring to the upcoming Finborough's Vibrant Festival featuring new plays to mark its thirtieth anniversary (among them James Graham's The Man), the then Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner [End Page 179] commented: "The Finborough's achievement is a mighty one, doing more for new writing on little or no money than some other, better-funded theatres."⁵ Gardner has also subsequently hailed the canny curation of the theatre's artistic directorship.⁶

The theatre's reputation is particularly impressive for its size, a small black-box space with maximum audience capacity of fifty people; as well as its location, a cozy above-a-pub space in West Brompton, situated some four miles from the UK's traditional theatre heartland in the West End. Indeed, a remarkable proportion of Finborough shows have transferred to the West End and Broadway, or they have subsequently toured the Anglophone world: the UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, and Australia.⁷ Modern classics that were fostered and received their premiere at the Finborough before achieving international success include Ravenhill's Shopping and F***king (1996), Anthony Neilson's Penetrator (1993), Laura Wade's Young Emma (2003), Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman (1995), and Dawn King's Foxfinder (2012).

The Finborough's determination to maintain high standards and foster bold, often provocative, truant, and oppositional theatre—a luxury normally reserved for publicly funded theatres in London such as the Royal National Theatre or the Royal Court Theatre—is one of the main reasons for its strong reputation among critics and playwrights alike. Funded venues can financially afford a "right to fail" policy for a percentage of their productions at least.⁸ The Finborough, by contrast, holds its own in this territory despite its lack of public money, occasionally eschewing a need for financial success in pursuit of advancing the theatre's journey. And this approach, however difficult it can be, has proven fruitful. The theatre's reputation continues to attract leading critics to its shows, with almost every production reviewed in the UK's national press. And this critical attention has enabled the theatre to consistently draw significant emerging talent. Former protégées of the Finborough who have progressed to become leading voices in British theatre today include Wade, Naomi Wallace, Mike Bartlett, Claire Dowie, David Eldridge, James Graham, Nicholas de Jongh, Peter Oswald, Nick Payne, Ravenhill, Alexandra Wood, and Anders Lustgarten.

I interviewed Neil McPherson, the theatre's artistic director since 1999, and asked him about the challenge of operating such a significant [End Page 180] theatre on a small budget. I also elicited his thoughts on the controversy surrounding the theatre's reputation...

• 四十年过去了：芬伯勒的资金难题
• 苏·希利 (bio)

伦敦的芬伯勒剧院是一个拥有 50 个座位的边缘场馆，有着吸引詹姆斯格雷厄姆、马克拉文希尔和劳拉韦德等新兴剧作家的著名历史，他们已经发展成为国内和国际地位的代言人。通过识别、培养和为有前途的剧作家提供第一个平台，芬伯勒剧院在当代伦敦戏剧生态系统中的重要性经常得到英国领先行业人物的认可和称赞。¹

Finborough 成立于 1980 年，是一个小型剧场，上演新旧戏剧，偶尔还会上演音乐剧。其目的是将其重点放在发人深省的基于文本的新写作和重新发现 19 世纪和 20 世纪初被忽视的作品之间。该剧院在该领域拥有令人印象深刻的成就和成就记录，但 Finborough 不是国家投资组合组织（一个接受公共资金的组织，称为 NPO）。因此，剧院不得不在其整个历史中很少或根本没有资金运营。²

Finborough 现在已经连续运营了 40 年，尽管最近发生了 Covid-19 封锁。³剧院是一个屡获殊荣的伦敦重要场所。英国著名戏剧界成员的定期评论说明了这一事实，并表明芬伯勒剧院被广泛认为是戏剧界的重要场所。它被广泛认为是“超越其重量”。^{4 2010 年，时任}《卫报》戏剧评论家林恩·加德纳 (Lyn Gardner )提到即将到来的芬伯勒充满活力的音乐节，以新剧庆祝其成立 30 周年（其中包括詹姆斯·格雷厄姆的《男人》）[完 179 页]评论说：“芬伯勒的成就是一项了不起的成就，与其他一些资金更雄厚的剧院相比，它以很少或没有钱的方式为新作品做的更多。” ⁵ Gardner 随后也赞扬了剧院艺术总监的精明策划。⁶

剧院的名声尤其令人印象深刻，它的规模是一个小型的黑匣子空间，最多可容纳 50 人；以及它的位置，位于西布朗普顿（West Brompton）的舒适的酒吧空间，距离英国西区的传统剧院中心约四英里。事实上，相当一部分芬伯勒的演出已经转移到西区和百老汇，或者他们随后在英语世界巡回演出：英国、美国、加拿大、南非、爱尔兰和澳大利亚。⁷部现代经典作品在芬伯勒获得国际成功之前得到了培育和首映，包括 Ravenhill 的Shopping and F***king (1996)、Anthony Neilson 的Penetrator (1993)、Laura Wade 的Young Emma（2003 年）、马丁·麦克唐纳的《枕头人》 （1995 年）和黎明之王的《寻狐者》（2012 年）。

Finborough 决心保持高标准并培育大胆的、往往是挑衅的、逃学的和对立的剧院——这是伦敦公共资助的剧院通常保留的奢侈品，如皇家国家剧院或皇家宫廷剧院——是其主要原因之一。在评论家和剧作家中享有盛誉。受资助的场馆至少可以为其部分作品提供“失败权”政策。⁸相比之下，尽管缺乏公共资金，芬伯勒剧院在该地区仍占有一席之地，偶尔会避开财务成功的需要，以推动剧院的发展。这种方法，无论多么困难，都被证明是卓有成效的。该剧院的声誉继续吸引着主要评论家观看其演出，几乎所有作品都在英国国家媒体上进行了审查。这种批判性的关注使剧院能够不断吸引重要的新兴人才。Finborough 的前门徒如今已成为英国戏剧界的领军人物，包括 Wade、Naomi Wallace、Mike Bartlett、Claire Dowie、David Eldridge、James Graham、Nicholas de Jongh、Peter Oswald、Nick Payne、Ravenhill、Alexandra Wood 和安德斯·卢斯特加滕。

我采访了自 1999 年以来一直担任剧院艺术总监的尼尔·麦克弗森（Neil McPherson），并向他询问了以小预算运营如此重要的[End Page 180]剧院所面临的挑战。我还引出了他对围绕剧院声誉的争议的看法……