Tom Morris's departure from the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) on 9th January is as much a loss for the London fringe as it will be a prize for the mainstream. For nearly a decade, BAC has been the unofficial home of experimental theatre. When the 39-year-old Morris takes up his new job as associate director at the National Theatre in February, that energy will transfer to the establishment. Neither Morris nor the NT has defined what exactly the job will entail. All that is certain is that Morris represents the next phase in director Nicholas Hytner's transformation of the NT.
Its last artistic director, Trevor Nunn, had a shaky record on new work. Nunn partially countered this with the 2002 Transformation season, which was meant to be a showcase of innovation. But there was a feeling then that it was being pushed off into a corner. When Hytner arrived in April 2003, he hit the ground running - in terms both of his programming and the Travelex ?10 season, which together have meant that a significant proportion of the National's theatregoers in 2003 were first-time visitors. Morris conceives of his role in the rejuvenation of the NT as, initially at least, a blank slate: "I'm going to be developing shows that wouldn't normally fall into the National Theatre's programme," he says. "Exactly what that means, we'll have to work out on the job."
In one sense, Morris has already been instrumental in Hytner's revolution, having developed Jerry Springer: the Opera at BAC prior to its transfer to the NT, where it became the noisiest hit of 2003. It was Morris's equally balanced instinct for the experimental and the popular which saw BAC encourage the growth of companies such as Frantic Assembly, Improbable Theatre and the surrealist duo Ridiculusmus (whose producer David Jubb takes over as artistic director at BAC). The now familiar observation is that Tom Morris's approach to theatre is not so far from the off the wall perspective of his television-satirist elder brother, Chris.
Hytner believes that, after a generation of jumping through political hoops in order to justify its subsidies, theatre in general and the NT in particular now needs to begin arguing its corner on its own terms. But it is an argument that has depended on increased injections of cash. As far as Morris is concerned, the funding policies of the current era have made new work at the BAC possible and also opened up a wider potential throughout Britain. "A lot of different opportunities for the National Theatre to get involved in new kinds of work wouldn't have happened without a new government attitude to arts funding," Morris says. He's not against analysing the usefulness of the arts, "as long as that also includes the leap in the heart you get when you encounter great art."
Morris's job at the NT, which he describes as "incredibly jammy," is unlikely to mirror that of Mick Gordon, who oversaw the 2002 Transformation season for Nunn, and then vanished from the picture. Nor will he be taking over the role of Sue Higginson, who left in August as head of the NT Studio theatre, hitherto the mainstay of the National's development strategies. The Studio, says Morris, will remain a good avenue for nurturing new work, but should not be restricted to experimental material any more than experiments at the NT will be restricted to the Studio. Hytner's backing for Jerry Springer was - its aesthetic merit aside - a provocation. By hiring the man who helped bring Springer to life, Hytner has confirmed his commitment to bold and youthful innovation across the National's stages. It will be fascinating to see what Morris does with what appears to be a roving brief.
