Outgoing Polka Theatre Artistic Director Jonathan Lloyd tells us who and what has inspired him throughout his career.
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Joan Littlewood
There’s a great quote that compares the Royal Court of the 1960s to a church and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Royal Stratford East to a pub. Personally, I’ve always liked theatres that were more like a pub – convivial, rowdy and messy. I remember my shock and pleasure on first encountering Theatre Workshop’s ‘Oh! What A Lovely War’, the sharp, blazing edge of its political message, its emotional clout and yet at the same, it was entertaining. Learning more about Joan Littlewood, the way she championed misfit talents like Shelagh Delaney and Brendan Behan, her campaign for a fun palace in London, I realised how stubbornly revolutionary she had been, and how there was a whole alternative tradition of British theatre that I was only beginning to wake up to.
