Commenting on Guardian.co.uk Whilst Drunk

The following, verbatim, is a post i made on the guardian website:

Right now Bristol is buzzing with people making great work. For me the disappearance of Bristol Old Vic has lead to there being a lot more openness and support within the theatre/performance community. At the same time, as if by magic, there are a host of emerging companies...emerging. You only have to look at the programme for BAC's BURST season to see an embarrassment of 'stol based riches: Tim Atack, Tom Marshman, Search Party and Action Hero are all showing work.

Now I am aware that I have used the a very suspect word: community. But in Bristol I think it's appropriate: the city is large enough to support a bunch of different companies and institutions, whilst being small enough for everyone to be in direct, meeting in the street, contact. If I want to, I can see almost every piece of theatre that is shown in Bristol each week. That is not something which can happen in a city the size of London. This community feeling means that people are up for coming together to help each other out rather than doing one another down to get ahead. A case in point is Residence (obvious bias here because I'm a member) which is a collective of companies and individuals who make theatre, performance and live art. It's a massively supportive network of people and it's great to get out of the bedroom/office and into a space with other artists, with all the interaction that brings. Beyond this there is a thirst for work from a committed and diverse audience. The recent Prototype scratch night at the Tobacco Factory pulled in an audience of 148 people, which is astronomical for a work-in-progress night.

The thing for me is that this is a fragile situation, most of the small companies are losing money hand over fist (was it ever thus) but there just doesn't seem to be any strategic thinking coming from the Arts Council, no recognition that there is a small something special happening which needs nurturing. The small fry in Bristol need financial support if they are ever to become self sustaining. As for London, next time I can afford the train I might just check it out...