Fringe calls tune for West End opening

ROS WYNNE-JONES

A fringe theatre company took to the stage of the Albery Theatre in the West End last night after being snapped up last week by the producer Bill Kenwright at an alternative venue in Brixton.

The Counterpoint Theatre Company's latest production, Willis Hall's The Long And The Short And The Tall, was within hours of opening at the Shaw Theatre, Brixton, when a deal was struck with the Albery.

Bill Kenwright, who organised the transfer in just six days, and without seeing the play first, said he was inspired by the novel business approach of Counterpoint when he visited their December production of Streets of Dublin. The actors subsidise themselves by running a telesales company in their spare time, selling products for a variety of companies.

"They are basically a bunch of lads who said 'we're not sitting round waiting for the bloody phone to ring, we'll run our own theatre company and we'll fund it through a telesales business'. I admired their capacity to dare.

"I believe that among all the million dollar musicals, there should be room for talented people whose sets cost next to nothing. Basically, this project says a lot about the West End."

By January, Kenwright and Counterpoint had begun discussions. Last week, Kenwright told the disbelieving actors, all graduates of the Webber Douglas drama school, that there was a slot free at the Albery.

The telesales-theatre company was the idea of Ian Francis, Counterpoint's commercial director. He had heard of out-of-work American actors staffing telesales companies on the West Coast. "Why work in bars and restaurants, when you could be working in a much nicer environment with other actors?" The nature of telesales work, with its flexible hours, was ideal, he said.

"People must be thinking we are very lucky, but we have worked bloody hard to get to the West End. The three actors were feeling terrified, but then they got up on stage for a rehearsal and realised it's just the same really whether you perform at the Shaw or the Albery. They are handling being thrown into the limelight very well."

The company, Professional Communicators, raised pounds 100,000 in the last nine months for Counterpoint, allowing them to afford actors like London's Burning's Mark Arden and Burt Kwouk., who feature in The Long And The Short And The Tall.

The Shaw Theatre will now be empty for three weeks, but theatre director Jo Scarratt wishes Counterpoint the best of luck. "They saw their opportunity and took it. They are very single minded and they deserve every success."