Suddenly we saw that you could do plays about real life, and people had been doing them for some time, but they weren’t always getting to the audiences. They were performed in little, tiny, theatres.
Meaning of the quote
This quote suggests that plays about real life have been around for a while, but they weren't always reaching large audiences. Instead, they were often performed in small, intimate theaters. The quote suggests that this was a problem, as these plays about everyday life weren't being seen by as many people as they could have been.
About Timothy West
Timothy West is an acclaimed English actor and presenter who has had a long and successful career in theatre, television, and film. He is known for his roles in Coronation Street, EastEnders, and Not Going Out, and for his travel series with his wife, Prunella Scales, called Great Canal Journeys.
More quotes from Timothy West
I got very cross with the term, kitchen sink. It just meant that you invaded different kinds of houses, where it was very difficult to avoid kitchen sink.
British film, stage, and television actor
There was no real fringe theatre in London until way after the war, so either a play was done secretly with a club licence or it was done openly and had to be assessed along with everything else.
British film, stage, and television actor
Lord Chamberlain’s readers or controllers, which were a handful of people working directly to him, were a very assorted group of people and some of them tried very hard to be as liberal as they could.
British film, stage, and television actor
When you’re writing about people that are not very well off, you seem to see the kitchen sink. So it was a bit of a sort of cosy phrase that got used a bit too much.
British film, stage, and television actor
No producer should revive a play unless they have a very good reason for it. I think there’s quite enough about a good play to make it available to new audiences.
British film, stage, and television actor
Towards the end of the Lord Chamberlain’s era, when his hold was being loosened, private prosecutions began to happen. A member of staff at the Royal Court ordered to stop the play, and the police were brought in.
British film, stage, and television actor
There were loads of plays which were very popular before and after the war, where everybody wore a dinner jacket in the third act and it was in a house that you wished you’d owned with people that you wish you knew. It was life seen through a very privileged way.
British film, stage, and television actor
You’re not allowed to step out of whatever the rules are, politically, or socially, and they’ll get you for it, they’ll hunt you down. That’s the really frightening thing.
British film, stage, and television actor
A conventional playwright tries to tell you more about the characters than they know about themselves.
British film, stage, and television actor
I don’t believe in right-angled turning points.
British film, stage, and television actor
Certain things were deemed to be offensive. It was usually bad language.
British film, stage, and television actor
The classical writers… playwrights, Jacobean, Elizabethan playwrights, all showed areas of all classes and how they live and painted them pretty authentically.
British film, stage, and television actor
Anybody can decide if they have got the money to fight a case if they don’t like a particular thing, and they complain to the watch committee, local council or whatever.
British film, stage, and television actor
I’m reluctant to use the word class so much.
British film, stage, and television actor
The Long and the Short and the Tall made a great impression on me because it was a very ugly tale about the reality of soldiering at a time when we were being gung-ho about the whole thing of war.
British film, stage, and television actor
In 1968 the Arts Council managed to get a grant from the treasury to buy up a lot of derelict touring theatres and put them back in the hands of the local authorities.
British film, stage, and television actor
Suddenly we saw that you could do plays about real life, and people had been doing them for some time, but they weren’t always getting to the audiences. They were performed in little, tiny, theatres.
British film, stage, and television actor
The foyers now look ridiculously small to us because not all that many people used them.
British film, stage, and television actor
The newly decorated theatres produced things like car parks and restaurants, so you could have a good night out, quite cheaply without all that bother of having to go somewhere else.
British film, stage, and television actor