The Stage

Be a good sport and act on the problem, darling

Published Tuesday 6 April 2004 at 10:15

I was delighted to read the Minister of State for the Arts’ reply (Opinion, April 1, page 8) to my piece. Sorry, that should be Estelle’s reply, as, with commendable New Labour egalitarianism, she calls me Nichola despite the fact we have never met. But then, even sex hardly serves as a formal introduction these days.

Her enviable command of statistics is awesome and, despite my ivory tower, I was aware of independent sponsorship. But I think the article was intended to be more about the government’s perception of us outside our usefulness as celebrity endorsements. And I will admit that to elicit a laugh from my readers, I occasionally phrase things outwith the earnest exactitude Ms Morris favours. But then, a sense of humour is a prerequisite of our job and a distinct disadvantage in hers.

Ben Schott, in his Telegraph miscellanies, revealed three cabinet members listed theatre in their list of interests. Considerably more listed football.

I agree - and in fact the point of my article was - that we should be able as a society to embrace both sport and arts equally but, Estelle, darling, luvvie, what are you doing to alter the image of the arts with Prezza and the lads? Many of whom would sooner kiss Michael Howard’s front bench rather than go into a theatre.

Campbell, of course, is now, courtesy of his tour, ‘one of us’ - so we’ve perhaps made one convert…

Nichola McAuliffe

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