The first word ever spoken on the New Vic stage was “Yes”. The affirmation came at the start of a poem by Arthur Berry, written in 1986 to toast the new theatre and welcome audiences to a place of “necessary illusions”. In his native Potteries, Berry is a celebrated polymath, known for his drawings, prints and watercolours, as well as poetry, broadcasting and half a dozen plays, including St George of Scotia Road, the theatre’s opening production.
Appropriately, in this centenary year of Berry’s birth and three decades after his death, the theatre has dug out the first draft of his final play, spruced it up and given it a belated debut.
