“This year is our 10-year anniversary so we thought, ‘lets do 10 shows’, which is obviously a very sensible thing to do with two small children.”
Poppy Burton-Morgan runs Metta Theatre along with her husband, the designer Will Reynolds. I’m sitting in her London flat, which also doubles as Metta’s headquarters. Her youngest, Finn, is asleep in the next room, while his brother Noah joins in the interview for a bit, after helping make coffee and telling me about his favourite tractors. An article by Lyn Gardner calling for a childcare revolution in the arts has just appeared in the Guardian and Burton-Morgan wants that conversation to continue.
But, as those who read her impassioned blog will know, she also feels that there are other vital conversations that need to be had – her post on breastfeeding while directing makes great reading. “I never really planned to stop working,” she tells me. “Metta Theatre is not a national portfolio organisation. Neither of us is on a salary. Rightly or wrongly, as a director, you feel that if you step out for too long you’ll be completely forgotten,” she continues. “But it’s also about proving to yourself that you can still do it and you do still want to do it.”
Read the full article by Natasha Tripney at The Stage