The Stage

Problem solving

Published Monday 8 January 2007 at 15:15

Vicki Brown (letters, page 6/7, January 4) is right. There are plenty of actors who have never been to the Theatre Museum - it doesn’t help them get a part in EastEnders or Coronation Street - but she can’t have been there recently herself if she has not seen what she remembers as empty galleries now lively with visiting tourists, school parties, talks and shows - and this despite the attitude of its masters at the V&A, which its former director, Alexander Schouvaloff, describes in his feature in the same issue. It has not got any easier for more recent directors.

Anyone who knows the history of the museum knows about its problems. Nevertheless, despite the difficulties the galleries present and the tightness of the budgets, it is all we have. If we get another branch in Blackpool - or Birmingham, or Bristol, fine! It’s about time it did its job as a national museum - but most of Britain’s theatre-going tourists go to London theatres and its natural centre is in London. If cost is the sole criterion, then if the V&A can do the job better and cheaper elsewhere, let’s hear about it. And about other proposals. How much will the move to South Kensington (and Blackpool) cost? Is it worth it if we don’t get something better?

Of course the Guardians of the Theatre Museum have no track record. We are a hastily gathered group trying to stop the Museum’s sudden closure, not just to save it as it is but to buy time to make some real plans for the future. Many of those involved had already made proposals to the V&A when the parent museum sent out its consultation paper. I am not aware of any of them being seriously consulted since. We all need to pool resources, to create and maintain a Theatre Museum that will buzz with activity and truly record and celebrate our theatre heritage.

Howard Loxton

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