01 Jun 2023
A special evening of entertainment at St Albans’ Roman Theatre commemorated 20 years of OVO Theatre Company.
The event was attended by special guests from across the community, and included performances from productions throughout the company’s history, including Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It.
Founders Adam Nichols and Simon Nicholas cut a special cake to mark the occasion, which also acted as a preview for this year’s Roman Theatre Festival, which runs throughout the summer.
Adam and Simon co-founded OVO in 2003 to develop their shared passion for bold, imaginative theatre that included dramatic reinterpretations of classic texts as well as exciting, innovative and accessible entertainment for new audiences.
In the same year, Trestle Theatre Company was opening a theatre in St Albans and looking for companies to come in and use the space.
Artistic director Adam explained: “We staged our first show, Romeo & Juliet, at Trestle and spent the next eight years curating and directing shows there. One of the great things about this beginning was that we met and worked with some amazingly creative people – many of whom are still involved with the company 20 years later. We think that says a lot for the culture and the ethos of OVO.”
In 2011 they moved into a new permanent home, The Maltings Theatre in St Albans and in 2014 they staged their first outdoor production – ‘Boudicca at Verulamium’ – at the historic Roman Theatre of St Albans, built some 2,000 years ago as part of the Roman city of Verulamium.
The historic, open-air site provided the company with a unique chance: to stage innovative, exciting theatre on a huge site that presented one or two challenges…
Associate director Simon remembers OVO’s 2016 production of As You Like It: “Adam was directing and had the play set in 1968 – complete with hippie camper van and psychedelic scenery. It was my first insight into the challenges of working in an important historic location. We couldn’t get a real van onto the site as there are no paths so we made one out of an enhanced garden shed which came apart so we could transport it onto the set, re-assemble it and bingo, it looked like a real hippie camper van!”
OVO boasts a progressive slate of drama, comedy, opera, musicals, solo shows and seasonal outings.
It has staged dozens of critically acclaimed productions including bold re-imaginings of classic texts by William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, JM Barrie, Lucy Kirkwood, Caryl Churchill and more. It also plays an important part in discovering and developing new writing, acting, directing.
Photos by Tim Morozzo and Matt Adams.
