Some insight into the background of The Miniaturists from Stephen Sharkey, the curator of the group.

Just a few words from me on the genesis of The Miniaturists, getting on for seven years ago now, and what we have been up to since. This is the blurb I wrote for the programme for the first show, November 2005:

The Miniaturists are playwrights interested in the possibilities of the short play. As jobbing writers we're used to time-restricted slots, be they on Radio 4 or the Edinburgh Fringe. It sometimes seems the art of writing broad-canvas plays for large casts is getting away from us. The Monsterists argue for the liberation of playwrights from the shackles of the black box, the iddy-biddy cast, and the 'Shaz Baz and Gaz' kind of social realism. We Miniaturists salute them - we are most of us writing monsters ourselves.
But there's sometimes virtue in necessity. The word 'miniature' derives from the old Latin, for the red paint used by the artists who created those stunning illuminated manuscripts. It's not about brevity, necessarily, but about taking care over detail. Poets agonise over the briefest line. In music, the likes of Dylan, Jarvis and Morrissey are writers who can thrill with a syllable. So in our miniature plays, we'll try new ways to please you. To quote Armando Iannucci, there are two golden rules for performance. The first, is always to leave the audience wanting more.

The Monsterists won the day, of course, most notably chief monster Richard Bean who has been monstering his way around the big stages of the UK and beyond with his brilliantly clever and muscular comedies. Where above I say there is sometimes virtue in necessity, I suppose what I mean is that we writers do just have to write, and write for an audience, if we are to keep wind in the sails. A chairmaker must make chairs, and the chairs are meant to be sat on. Or to put it another way, quoting Sir David Hare, “the play is in the air” (and not on the page, or in the artistic director’s inbox). So while we carry on with the day-to-day, tapping away at our obsessions, our monsters, still we need from time to time, and as regularly as we can manage, to share the same air as the audience, show them things, and (crucially) engage with and learn from other theatremakers, the people who flesh out our thoughts and in so doing comingle theirs with ours. This is the very simple reason for The Miniaturists. Since we started out, a number of other short play events have taken root in the theatre landscape and all power to them. Many cater to the enthusiastic setter-outer, and this is hugely to be welcomed, but we have from our outset sought to people the Miniaturists with a mix of promising newcomers with at least some production record (however many years old they happen to be, I should stress), and longer-in-the-tooth, practising playwrights who are looking for a place to play between or alongside of bigger projects.

We need hardly address the question, is a fifteen minute play worth less or intrinsically less interesting than a ninety minute play? It’s simply on a different clock. And is more manageable to produce, in batches of five, in an irregular Sunday slot at the Arcola. We’ll see you there. 

Stephen Sharkey