It’s said that familiarity breeds contempt - or a lack of appreciation at least.  So, many people locally will have been surprised by the full pages in national newspapers and the household names paying tribute when the New Vic’s founding director, Peter Cheeseman, died in April.

Any regular visitor to the original Victoria Theatre or to The New Vic would have been familiar with Peter.  Small, stocky, with trademark woolly jumper, he was a permanent presence, hurrying about the building, mixing with audiences before shows, sharing a drink in the pub afterwards.

But ‘familiarity’ - making theatre a part of the local community with actors, writers, designers and musicians living in the locality and making work that reflected local life - was a fundamental part of Peter’s revolutionary vision for theatre.  And it was to make him one of the most influential theatre directors of the last 50 years and earn a small theatre in a converted street corner cinema an international reputation.

Living newspaper

Peter Cheeseman was born in Portsmouth in 1932.  His father, a communications officer with the Air Ministry, was posted around the country and Peter attended ten schools, finishing at Quarry Bank in Liverpool.  Here he saw Unity Theatre and their ‘living newspaper’ productions - improvised drama based on current events.  They made a marked impression on Peter.

Theatre-in-the-round

After university, national service and a stint at Derby Playhouse, in 1961, he joined Stephen Joseph’s Studio Theatre Company.  Joseph was a passionate advocate of theatre-in-the-round, believing it was the way to re-invigorate British theatre.  Peter became a disciple.

The company visited Newcastle-under-Lyme regularly and North Staffordshire became a permanent home when, for less than £5,000, they converted an abandoned cinema into a theatre. Peter became artistic director.  His vision was to combine the intimacy of Joseph’s theatre-in-the-round with his own belief in a theatre rooted in the community.  For him, this meant a permanent company of actors living in the town, making work that, “springs from out contact with this community”.

Alan Ayckbourn, who joined Peter at the new theatre, recalls:  “Everyone except Peter booked digs for three weeks.  We were all looking for our return tickets.  Peter bought a house”.

“I felt I had to stay there”, Peter explained. “I don’t think it’s any good turning one’s back on the realities of 20th century industrial life . . . You’ve got to live with what’s there and make sense of it”.

New Vic

Stay he did.  Refusing work for the Royal Shakespeare Company and in London, for an unprecedented 36 years, Peter was Director of the Victoria Theatre and, from 1986, of the New Vic.  Europe’s first purpose-built, theatre-in-the-round, it remains one of the most successful 20th century theatre designs in the UK and, without Peter, would never have been built.

Peter produced 393 plays, directing 147 of them himself.  He remained a passionate advocate of theatre-in-the-round and of a ‘people’s theatre’ and he encouraged writers and actors such as Alan Ayckbourn, Ben Kingsley, Mike Leigh, Robert Powell and Alan Plater, making North Staffordshire an unlikely creative hothouse. 

Documentaries

His most significant contribution to theatre was his ‘documentaries’, starting with Jolly Potters (1964).  Made by sending out his actors to research original material and shaping pieces of theatre using only the words spoken or written by the people involved in the actual events. 

Film director Mike Leigh, was an actor with Peter’s company in the 1960s. “Working with Peter”, he says, “was a special and creative time.  The spirit in which we worked – to be political and truthful – was down to him.  He was a genius, a vagabond, a facilitator.  What he achieved is colossal”.

Comrades

In July, the New Vic helps celebrate Peter’s life and achievements. New Vic friends and comrades past and present will perform and read inspiring words associated with Peter’s long life in the theatre.

The event also marks the start of a new fund to be used to continue work on the Victoria Theatre Cheeseman Archive, housed at Staffordshire University. 

A Celebration for Peter Cheeseman, 2.30 pm, Sunday 18 July. Tickets:  £10.00 (minimum) donation to the Cheeseman Archive Fund