Watermill Theatre

The Watermill Theatre is an award -winning, professional repertory theatre with charitable status. It is a converted watermill with gardens beside the River Lambourn, in Bagnor, near Newbury, Berkshire, England. It retains many of its original architectural features such as the waterwheel, which is viewed through a screen on entry to the auditorium; also wooden beams and corn chutes, which protrude incongruously through the lighting arrays. Although housed in a 200 year old building, the theatre uses state of the art technology.

Jill Fraser was a co-owner of the theatre (with her husband James Sargant) from 1981 until her death in 2006, and under her artistic direction it developed into a significant regional theatre. Jill's vision has led the Watermill to build an excellent reputation worldwide, whilst also encouraging creativity and growth at home; for example, many of today's successful theatre practitioners began their careers at the Watermill before going on to further their careers elsewhere (probably most famously Bill Nighy, Sean Bean and David Suchet); many of these people retain a personal and professional connection with the Watermill Theatre. The Theatre was put up for sale by the Sargant family 2008. A development board was established, chaired by Ralph Bernard, and was successful in raising funds to purchase the building and grounds. The theatre is now run by a Board of Trustees and is managed by the current artistic and executive director, Hedda Beeby, who took over in 2007. Under her leadership the Watermill continues to evolve and to enjoy considerable success.

"As an actor who began his career here, The Watermill fulfils my vision of a perfect theatre." David Suchet - as quoted from the Watermill Theatre website

The theatre seats around 220 people in the stalls and a gallery and sometimes the seats are arranged 'in the round'. Sometimes a summer production will be partially performed in the garden of the theatre, which will have been specially set up. The stage is particularly small, around 4 m x 7 m, however plays and musical theatre shows with larger casts are still possible with ingenuity, the largest so far being around 14. Jill Fraser was one of the few artistic directors who dared to premiere new work. Among her notable Watermill premieres were works by Vivian Ellis award-winners George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, and the cult hit The Great Big Radio Show! by Philip Glassborow. Jill also encouraged diverse new writing and established, with the writer/director Ade Morris, the regular small-middle scale touring of new plays. Watermill touring now produces up to three tours a year, two of which seek out those UK towns and villages with little or no theatre activity of their own, and one, usually a musical theatre piece or a Shakespeare, to large scale theatres across the UK. Often these large scale UK tours will also travel abroad to Europe, the US and the Far East, or transfer to the West End. For example, the previously mentioned Propeller Theatre Company, based at the Watermill from 1997 - 2009, have toured to more than 17 countries. The theatre also has a thriving Outreach team with a widely diverse community and education programme, including a large youth theatre ranging from the two year old 'Waterminis' to the Young Company at twenty plus.

More recently, the theatre has concentrated on revivals of musicals which feature cast members playing 2 or more instruments over the course of the play. This can be on or off stage when they are not involved with the action, due to the lack of an orchestra pit, although increasingly the Watermill has produced actor musician shows where the actors are both playing and performing throughout the production.

This has been developed into a highly successful actor musician genre with the help of Tony Award winning director John Doyle and Tony Award winning musical director Sarah Travis. This team is responsible for Watermill productions of 'Pinafore Swing', 'A Star Danced' and 'Ten Cents a Dance', and more recently with the highly successful Sweeney Todd and Mack and Mabel both of which have gone on from the Watermill to tour the UK and transfer to the West End. In the case of Sweeney Todd, the Doyle/Travis production was successful on Broadway (and resulted in the previously mentioned Tony Awards). As well as musicals, season's in the late 2000's usually saw a Shakespeare play in conjunction with the Watermill based Propeller company, directed by Edward Hall, often in a reinterpreted format, and a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, again a re-arranged version which may only superficially resemble the original, sometimes even the title was altered (such as 'Pinafore Swing'; an actor musician version of HMS Pinafore with music arranged by Sarah Travis, and the more recent Hot Mikado; a condensed actor musician version of the already existing Hot Mikado, which in turn is a jazzed up version of the Gilbert and Sullivan comedy opera The Mikado!). The Watermill production of Hot Mikado was directed by Craig Revel Horwood, also known for his role as a judge on 'Strictly Come Dancing'. As the Hedda Beeby era has evolved the Revel Horwood/Travis collaboration has gone from strength to strength with successful productions of "Martin Guerre" " Spend Spend Spend" and "Copacabana".

Despite its distinctly local feel, the Watermill's productions are almost without exception reviewed very favourably by national newspapers as well as local, and many productions transfer to the West End.