Director Timothy Sheader spoke to Anthony Cornish about his new production, the need to encourage young people in theatre, and Richmond’s thriving theatre scene.

The plot William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is as relevant today as it was when the story was written in the wake of the Second World War, says the director of a new production.

Timothy Sheader, of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre Company, has directed a cast of 12 young men in Nigel Williams’s adaptation of the 1954 novel and will be touring the UK until March.

Mr Sheader said: “We are trying to create the world of the people on stage represent the world of the people in the audience as much as possible. Nigel Williams gives us the opportunity to come to the theatre and experience the story together as a group.

“To engage anyone’s interest in something you have to put something on the stage that relates to them. It might be about their lives or their dreams or their hopes or their experiences.

“We wanted the hyperrealism that when you came into the theatre you immediately witnessed a contemporary image which was a crashed airplane with spewing luggage so that it felt real, relevant and contemporary even before a line of text was spoken.”

Mr Sheader’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird won the WhatsOnStage award for Best Play Revival in 2013 and he embraces working with young actors as well as for young audiences.

With the growth of different forms of entertainment, he claims, access and interest in theatre is much less than it was in past decades.

He said: “It is important to make work that speaks to young people if we want to get them into the theatre.

“You can’t just run a marathon. You have to train, you have to be introduced to the sport. I think you have to be introduced to art in a similar way.

“We’ve gone for as young as we possibly can, these young men are so committed and so passionate. They’re at the beginning of their lives and they all know they’ve been given an amazing opportunity to leave school, get paid and be in a professional production.”

Along its tour, the production will be staged at Richmond Theatre, in an area the 44-year-old from Scarborough is not a stranger to having previously worked at the Orange Tree for two years under its founder Sam Walters MBE.

“I had a fantastic time working at the Orange Tree and Richmond Theatre is one the most beautiful touring houses in the country, everybody wants that date on their tour because it’s that little beautiful theatre we’ve all seen in so many films.

“Richmond gets the best of both worlds: it gets the best of touring drama and then it gets work being made for the audience of Richmond round at the Orange Tree.”

Lord of the Flies will be at Richmond Theatre from January 19 to 23 and will travel the country before the tour ends at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre from March 15 to 19. Go to atgtickets.com

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