It’s about the time of year when one starts to think about what might be in the next season at the COC.  The last couple of years the announcement has just been an email drop and there’s really no way of telling when it will happen.  In about a month’s time is likely so if I’m going to make some predictions now is a pretty good time.

Once upon a time there were some pretty good indicators of what the next COC season might look like.  Rumours aside, one could look at:

• Co-productions with other companies and expect that they would come around sooner or later
• Ditto commissions of new work
• A certain regularity in the recurrence of “popular” works.  Madama Butterfly every five years for example.

The trouble is none of this seems to be relevant anymore.  Co-pros and commissions disappear without trace and the regularity patterns seem no longer to apply.  The only real certainty is that three or four shows will be revivals.  All of which makes trying to make predictions a bit daft… which makes me ideally suited to do it.  So here goes… Continue reading →