2014: even more jam packed with culture and heritage!

[prev] …all given a significant amount of their time, putting down bases, employing people in Peterborough. I think that’s going to make a major difference. As long as people keep responding to it, it’s awakening people to the idea that things are going on in Peterborough, and that you don’t have to go to Leicester or down to London. They can see quality stuff on their own doorstep.

You’ve said you’re talking to businesses – are they an important part of the equation?
We think of businesspeople as weird beings who are only interested in making money. But they still want to live in certain areas, and want to have a certain kind of life around them, and that’s why I passionately believe that arts is important to business. I don’t think business quite gets it yet, but the arts is wider than ‘the arts’ – it’s about culture, and its about the inventiveness of life around you. The places that have the best arts usually also have the best business, because it attracts people. It makes it a lively place to be. Who wants to work in a dull place?

‘It’s about working together. It’s about partnerships’

You sound quite passionate about Peterborough – have you fallen in love with the place?
I kind of have! I think it’s partly because you come from the outside and you find yourself working with all these other people who are passionate about it. I’ve been to the Innovation Forum, and I met people from the Chamber of Commerce, and did a talk at the Bondholder Breakfast with Opportunity Peterborough. And people come up to me and say ‘This is fascinating. I can’t believe you’re doing something about Peterborough!’. There is this whole raft of people who want things to happen but haven’t in the past quite known how to make a difference, but I think the connections are starting to be made between different parts of the community. It’s about working together. It’s about partnerships. And with the community play, we’re looking for people to get involved, we’re looking for businesses to become stakeholders and show their support, and we’re looking for a place for it to happen – we still don’t know where it’s actually going to be performed!

How is that search going?
We’ve been talking to a number of estate agents, but we know we’re probably going to have to leave it to the last minute. I kind of want Peterborough’s cultural world to have a stuck-down approach, and for it to have a real feel of Peterborough itself, and there’s no better way to do that than to perform inside its buildings. I want people to believe that things can happen in odd areas! I really think that’s important. As much as I love cultural palaces and good theatres like the Key, I want things to also happen elsewhere, like the Arts Fest, having the people interacting in the city centre.

‘I want to excite people. It’s entertainment and fun, but I hope it’ll send a chill down the spine…’

Last time we spoke you said you were looking for a warehouse…
A warehouse gives us scope to do something that has kind of an epic feel to it. Tony Ramsay has written a play that starts with the monks – the first development corporation – marking out the territory, then a doorman comes along with an earpiece in. So we’re crossing periods! Then we’ve got two men and a girl, with a love triangle centred on River Lane itself, where the guys used to go fishing just outside the power station, because the warm water used to attract the carp. It’s wonderfully atmospheric.

What do you hope people will take away from River Lane?
I hope they’ll enjoy a good story. And I hope they’ll connect up the various parts of the story. It’s not a realist piece – it takes place over a thousand years – but I like trying to mix up those things. The great thing about theatre is that you can do that, theatre can cope with it much more easily that TV or film. And I want to excite people. It’s entertainment and fun, but I hope it’ll send a chill down the spine.

River Lane – get involved!

Preparing for performance in May 2014 – venue TBA
Eastern Angles are keen to hear from anyone interested in getting involved with the River Lane project – whether as an individual, a group, a company wishing to sponsor, or someone with premises they think may provide a striking venue for the production.

About Eastern Angles
Formed in 1982, Eastern Angles is the regional touring theatre company for the East of England. It has become a national model of excellence for rural touring before expanding to include national touring, Edinburgh Festival visits and site-specific work. Most recently it has extended its work to Peterborough and is working on delivering a five year plan for theatre development in the city.

Contact Amy Fisher, Community Play Producer,
For more information about River Lane go to www.easternangles.co.uk or the new microsite www.riverlane.info