In another devastating blow for London theatre, Roxanna Silbert has stepped down as artistic director of Hampstead Theatre following the news that Arts Council England has cut its funding entirely. ACE previously supported the theatre with an annual grant of £766,455, the removal of which means they must “change direction” and will no longer be able to support new writing exclusively.
Other London theatres to have 100% of their funding cut include the Donmar Warehouse, the Barbican Centre, and the Gate Theatre, another new writing venue facing the same fate as the Hampstead. Those facing a reduction in funding include the Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre and prestigious National Theatre. Additionally, the English National Opera are suffering a cut so drastic they are now forced to move their headquarters from London to Manchester: ACE have offered a grant to assist with the move.
Whilst ACE’s decisions will prove calamitous for theatres across London, the Hampstead’s funding cut is perhaps most tragic for up-and-coming playwrights. Hampstead Theatre has long been known to support new writers: for 60 years, they have proudly worked towards the “commissioning, developing and producing of new plays”. Notable playwrights nurtured by Hampstead Theatre include Harold Pinter, Mike Leigh and Hanif Kureishi, names which prove the contribution of their commitment to new writers to the industry. In a statement earlier this week, Hampstead Theatre made their feelings on ACE’s decision clear, stating “it is tragic that a leading writers’ theatre […] should be treated in so summary a manner”.
So where is all this money being directed instead?
In theory: to local theatres. The redistribution of funds comes after Nadine Dorries’ statement earlier this year in which she addressed the “huge historic imbalance” of arts funding across the country. Yet whilst this is, in principle, an admirable intention, the real-life impact on some of London’s most renowned theatres cannot be understated. Founding artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse described the decision as “short-sighted”, whilst the National Theatre’s Rufus Norris described the move as being like “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
Some regional theatres are benefitting from the redistribution of money, including the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, which will receive £1.23m, the Shakespeare North Theatre in Prescot, and Blackpool’s illuminations.
Yet those benefiting are doing so at the expense of many other local venues, who are set to suffer just as much as those in London. The Watermill Theatre in Newbury – not only a regional theatre, but also another venue which prioritises new writing – have had 100% of their funding pulled: they have now been forced to launch their own funding campaign to stay afloat. Welsh National Opera, who use funding from ACE to subsidise UK tours, have also had their funding cut by £2.2m, whilst Glyndebourne Opera House in East Sussex will lose £860,000.
The clear damage this move is doing to theatres in London and across the country is sending shockwaves through the industry, with many questioning the true motives for the ruling. Former Labour MP Rupa Huq confronted ACE’s Chief Executive Darren Henley on Thursday, stating “lots of people outside London [are] massively dissatisfied at this” and asking if the cuts had been “politically motivated”. Henley rebuffed this by claiming the decisions were “a really strong way” of redistributing funding to beneficiaries who had been “underserved in the past”.
Whilst ensuring regional theatres receive funding is crucial in making theatre accessible to all, should it really come at the cost of London’s most essential theatres which are already struggling to recover from the impact of pandemic? With recent findings indicating that audiences are still only at 71% of their pre-pandemic levels, funding cuts to the arts could plunge theatres which are already hanging in the balance into perilous waters. What would London theatre be without venues such as the National Theatre and Royal Opera House continuing to thrive as part of its cultural landscape?
Even more heartbreaking is the impact this will have on new writers, whose struggle to make their voices heard is already difficult enough in an industry notoriously hard to break into. The priority will instead shift to well-known stories by established playwrights, making it virtually impossible for new writers to get their work seen anywhere further than fringe. Olivier Award-winning director Miranda Cromwell explains “what you’re going to see is more risk-averse programming, which means less new writing, which means more titles that we already know in order to make sure they’re meeting the shortfall”. It goes without saying that without the creation of new work, theatre faces the terminal fate of growing stale and outdated in a booming new age.
If one thing is transparent based on the protests of theatre professionals both in London and across the country, it is this: even if ACE cannot see it yet, the industry will keenly feel the impact of their decisions in years to come.
Words by Kate Padley
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