What is the Barron For?

Fourth-year undergraduates — and the postgraduate cohort who elected to stay on — ancient and decrepit as myself, may remember the Barron Theatre as something quite different to the 60-seat studio we know it as today.

First, it was a student-run theatre located somewhere between the New Picture House and Main Library on North Street: an ugly 20th-century build, sandwiched between the tracery of older architectural practices. By the time I arrived in town, the Barron Theatre was closed. Student productions too minute and small-scale for the Byre mainstage were, instead, being staged in the Lawrence Levy Studio Theatre (top floor in the Byre) — a black box studio that also functions as a space for rehearsals, workshops, and miscellaneous events. You will recognise this space from productions like last semester’s Art, Prospect Creek, and Much Ado About Nothing. In every respect, this studio has been the ‘Barron’ since the pandemic shut the doors to the previous student-run venue, and since my year-group was formally matriculated in 2021.

Praising the Barron  — especially as someone who has been involved in productions with Mermaids and People You Know, among other student theatre groups and societies — is no great hardship. Practically, the space serves the purpose of permitting a plethora of theatrical opportunities for students to get involved in, which would not be possible if the Byre was our only option: for example, only two two-night slots are available to Mermaids per semester. Meanwhile, last semester, the Barron hosted three Mermaids plays, independent productions, their annual Playwriting Competition, and recurring workshops by the Swilcan Theatrical Actorium; it is an accessible and well-equipped venue for students to stage productions in a performance space that leans on the formal and traditional side, as opposed to Rector’s Cafe or Aikman’s Cellar, as two examples. Creatively, the Barron is a gift. Plays which capitalise on themes of entrapment and imprisonment, spatial limitations, or stylistic modesty  — last year’s No Exit springs to mind  — can benefit from such a reduced capacity. Working in a space tailored to minimalism is meant to be creatively rewarding. And it often is.

Last April, the Barron pledged to ‘unmonopolise student theatre here in St Andrews’, or rather, to fulfil the process by which the Barron subcommittee had been working towards this end with the Student’s Union Managers and the Byre Theatre for two years. The idea was, and remains, that all student groups and societies could use the venue and charge for performances (which typically only comes with a £1 fee for every ticket sold), Union-affiliated or not. This has, in turn, paved the way for a myriad of independent student shows, including last semester’s production of Patrick Marber’s Closer which I directed, the charity pantomimes, a student-written play called The Flowering Tree and Lucy Prebble’s The Effect this semester, several productions by People You Know, duologues workshopped by Swilcan, or the upcoming MLitt Playwriting and Screenwriting cohort showcase Theatrical Tapas.

There seems to be a distinct increase in ‘independent’ student theatre-making, which essentially means plays produced and financed via means other than the Union-centralised Mermaids Performing Arts Fund, i.e. self-financed or with a successful application for the Antony Tudor Prize. What seems to be the case is that student theatre here is beginning to ‘unmonopolise’, so to speak and that the uniquely privileged position that Mermaids occupies relative to other university drama scenes is gradually starting to wax.

Across UK universities with reputable drama scenes, there are few that position a singular funding body or society at the absolute epicentre of performing arts — at least, to the extent that St Andrews has done. A prestigious university like Cambridge, which is famous for nurturing the talents of entertainers and creatives across generations, has various funding pots including the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (CUADC), the Cambridge Footlights, the Cambridge American Stage Tour (CAST), the ADC Theatre, among others — each financed independently of one another, each self-subsisting and relatively estranged from each other. It is no secret that members of the Barron subcommittee reside on the Mermaids Committee, the Mermaids president sits on the Antony Tudor Court which decides which proposals to fund (including Mermaids, MUST, and independent shows), and that Mermaids is equally involved with the decision making behind which independent productions get ‘passed’ or ‘rejected’ for the Barron stage.

Mermaids equally appear to claim the first pick of performance dates in the Barron, after which time the independent shows are selected and the space becomes available for extra-Mermaids societal bookings. Less convenient performance slots — either startlingly early in the semester or anxiety-inducing later dates, around the time deadlines and exam season come creeping in — are dished out at the Barron’s convenience to independent production teams and non-affiliated companies like People You Know. It remains a ‘get-what-you’re-given’ type of system which feels admittedly unbecoming of a student theatre scene which simultaneously prides itself on the opportunities it offers and the supposedly stated trajectory of de-monopolisation. One could certainly argue that student theatre in St Andrews is far less monopolised than it was a year ago now, as I would, but it would be a lie to suggest that the steps made by the Barron have made any serious difference to the way theatre is organised here. Some additional shows at bizarre and peripheral dates in the Martinmas calendar  — People You Know’s Playing Love, the St Andrews Art Theatre’s Dear Sister, and Theatrical Tapas all scheduled for the same week this May — simply will not do; it does not constitute bona fide change.

De-monopolisation probes questions of authority: how much control should be centrally handled and exerted by a single performing arts group over what can be funded, performed, or not? The Barron is an exceptional space to perform in, offering the means for students to explore their creative interests uncharacteristically freely. It has the potential to deliver on de-monopolisation in toto. But the Barron subcommittee which has been the driving force behind this shift should equally engage in a level of self-awareness that reveals, perhaps, de-monopolisation from Mermaids is incompatible with the close proximity the Barron keeps to the performing arts fund. The Barron Theatre should be — as it pledged — the first mover of positive change, but such a glaring contradiction as this makes the mission statement to ‘unmonopolise’ student theatre unfortunately trivial, especially from a performing arts scene so determined to take itself seriously. With luck, it will.

Photo by Matthew Colquhoun