Dark times for Britain’s theatres

Shakespeare’s Globe and the Old Vic in London are among those threatened with closure

Shakespeare’s Globe should be buzzing right now. The weather in London is glorious: under normal circumstances, this unique replica Elizabethan playhouse would be in full swing, the open-air yard packed with crowds beneath the night sky. Instead, like all our theatres, it lies silent. More distressing still is the recent disclosure that it might stay so.

The theatre is one of many to submit evidence to a government select committee of the grave impact of the lengthy, crisis-enforced closure. The world-renowned venue states that, without emergency funding from government, “We will not be able to survive this crisis.”

That is stark. And the Globe is far from alone. “We’re not a sector with lower income, we’re a sector with no income,” says Julian Bird, chief executive of Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre. “Seventy per cent of theatres will run out of cash by the end of the year. And there are some very, very big venues in that 70 per cent.”

Theatres saw their income vanish overnight when they locked down in March. Continued closure has meant that most are running through carefully amassed reserves to survive, but, with no certainty about when and how they might reopen and with social distancing incompatible with live performance, they are facing stark decisions. Already several venues have become insolvent, including Southampton’s Nuffield Theatre and Leicester Haymarket. The flagship National Theatre in London has said it is losing £5m a month and will have depleted its reserves by the end of March 2021: it is preparing for substantial redundancies. Overall, says Bird, theatre companies across the land have already lost around £330m.

Tom Morris, who co-directed the global hit War Horse and now runs Bristol Old Vic, warns that without emergency intervention from government, many more theatres will board up. “We are in the process of dismantling the infrastructure of British theatre,” he says. “Theatres all over the country are either planning or implementing radical redundancy programmes in order not to go bust.

“Every theatre knows we’re going to have to work more efficiently,” he adds. “This is a reset moment, it’s not going to be the same as it was before and no one thinks it is. But if we don’t have an intervention now, we will not be able to control the collapse of the infrastructure. We will just have to make savage cuts, which we won’t be able to recover from. That is the scale of it: it’s happening, it’s happening now and if we want to stop it, we’ve got to stop it.”

Culture Call podcast

Gris talks to the brilliant 30-year-old playwright Jeremy O Harris about his Broadway sensation ‘Slave Play’ and his autobiographical ‘Daddy’. They discuss how black art is re-packaged by white institutions

Among the first to hit crunch point are theatres with little or no government subsidy and those that earn 85 per cent or more of their income. That group includes Shakespeare’s Globe and London’s Old Vic. Shocking as it is to contemplate the capital without either of these iconic venues, both are in perilous straits.

Neil Constable, chief executive of the Globe, explains that the theatre has lost 95 per cent of its income (which is normally £2m a month) and is now running through reserves built up over 10 years. The venue is unsubsidised and its peak earning time is summer: it can’t contemplate reopening its big outdoor space in November. Like many others, the theatre is working on bringing in income through digital content, but, says Constable, needs an injection of “between £3-£5m to be able to reopen”,

The Old Vic, meanwhile, was about to welcome actor Timothée Chalamet for his hot-ticket London stage debut in 4000 Miles, when it closed its doors. Now the 202-year-old Grade II-listed building, which, like the Globe, receives no government subsidy, is burning through £350,000 of its reserves monthly. Executive director Kate Varah says the theatre reduced its costs by three-quarters and that its principal sponsors (Royal Bank of Canada and PwC) have been immensely supportive but describes the situation as “severe”.

“We went from £1.3m a month income to almost nothing and yet we still have our overheads to sustain, our permanent workforce and the freelance community we support.”

And, as many leading voices in the theatre world are now emphasising, the entire theatre industry is in jeopardy: commercial, subsidised and independent theatres alike have lost the vast bulk of their income.

“We don’t pursue talk of aid for the sector lightly,” says Varah. “It’s about hand-up, not hand-out. The whole sector, not just the Old Vic, needs a reboot now from the government. Once we get back on our feet, we can begin to contribute again and help kick-start the economy.”

The entertainment industry’s contribution to the economy is well documented. Across the UK, more than 34m people visit theatres each year, generating ticket revenue of £1.28bn. Theatre employs around 290,000 people.

Culture will be on the front line in terms of creating social cohesion and being part of the celebrations

Harder to calculate is theatre’s role in attracting tourism, in bringing footfall to local businesses and in contributing to the UK’s global reputation. Harder still to assess is the role it plays in emotional wellbeing, education, community support and social cohesion.

Matthew Warchus, artistic director of the Old Vic, points out that entertainment has helped many people get through lockdown and can play a vital part in helping the UK recover from this trauma. “Culture will be on the front line in terms of creating social cohesion and being part of the celebrations.”

But to do that, artists need to survive this period. The difficulty, says Morris, is that “you can’t just switch the lights back on”. A mothballed theatre can’t spring back into action. The theatre ecology is subtle and complex: it relies on a national network of companies, big and small, and of creative and technical individuals, the majority of whom are freelance or self-employed. Matilda began its life at the RSC, War Horse at the National Theatre, James Graham’s Quiz(seen on ITV recently) at Chichester Festival Theatre. Graham began writing at London’s tiny Finborough Theatre; Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag played at London’s Soho Theatre long before it became a television sensation. Future success for UK arts depends on similar such innovative individuals being sustained now.

“We have to recognise the infrastructure that previous generations have built in the UK that has made us stand out around the world,” says Constable.

Theatre representatives welcome the government help to date and the establishment of two working groups to tackle the challenges facing the sector. Many companies have been devising schemes to raise money themselves and exploring safe ways of reopening. (The Old Vic today announces In Camera, an innovative season of ticketed performances, kicking off with Matt Smith and Claire Foy in Lungs, that will be live-streamed nightly for audiences up to 1,000.) But theatres say a clear framework of emergency government support is now vital.

Most urgent is the government’s job retention scheme: representatives across the board are calling for an extension of the furlough scheme for the performing arts, together with extended, industry-specific support for freelance and self-employed artists. Another key measure is some form of one-off, emergency funding package. Varah suggests support could potentially be paid back through a “cash and in-kind balance”.

“It would be a really innovative way for the government to support the sector and show the benefit of the social mission work we do alongside the artistic work,” she says.

Speed is essential, says Bird: theatres need to make critical decisions about planning and about their workforce’s future within the next couple of weeks.

“Storytellers will always find a way to tell stories,” says Michelle Terry, artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe. “But if you shut all the doors — if they can’t live — the stories stop.”