In an industry drained of state support, who will dare to take a risk on new plays? The loss will be felt not only in London, but across the country
The storm over arts funding in England moved from opera to theatre this week, when the artistic director of one of London’s leading new writing houses resigned in response to the withdrawal of its Arts Council England grant. Its outgoing director, Roxana Silbert, said that the loss of its state subsidy of £766,455 a year meant it could no longer continue to function as a hub for new writing. Seventy-five playwrights turned out for a crisis meeting following the announcement, many of whom credit Hampstead theatre with giving them career-making breaks, and all of them worried about the effect on the fragile playwriting ecology of the country if a seedbed like Hampstead can only afford to stage guaranteed crowd-pleasers.
The 60-year-old north London venue is among 141 organisations cut adrift under Arts Council England’s radical three-year plan to reshape the creative economy of England. Called to account by the digital, culture, media and sport committee on Friday, the chief executive of the grant-giving government agency could only bat away a succession of local-interest criticisms from MPs with the statement that, of course, everything would be much better all round if only there was more money, but sadly there wasn’t – particularly in London, where it had been ordered to siphon £24m off to more needy areas over the next three years.
