Industry heavyweights unite to save Theatre Museum

Published Wednesday 29 November 2006 at 11:45 by Alistair Smith

Supporters of Covent Garden’s Theatre Museum including Cameron Mackintosh, Simon Callow, Judi Dench, Zoe Wanamaker and Kwame Kwei-Armah, are joining together in a last ditch attempt to stop the institution from closing in the new year.

The museum is due to be axed by parent organisation the Victoria and Albert Museum on January 7. However campaigners have launched lobbying group Guardians of the Theatre Museum in an attempt to reverse the decision.

The organisation is demanding the V&A withdraws its notice of closure on the museum and is looking for alternative ways to manage the institution. In the longer term, it also wants to investigate “broader possibilities for properly housing” the museum’s collections, potentially moving them to a new location.

As well as high profile figures from the theatre industry, the body has support in the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the European Parliament, with Peter Luff MP, Lord Rix and Michael Cashman MEP all backing it - Rix has this week submitted a series of questions to the House of Lords demanding to know why the government is allowing the museum to be shut in the face of high levels of support from the industry.

A spokesperson for the V&A said: “We are open to any initiatives for new venues to display the theatre collections but the critical factor is funding. Meanwhile, we are concentrating on plans to open a new gallery at the V&A devoted to the theatre collections, to stage major exhibitions such as the Diaghilev exhibition in 2009, and to mount touring displays.”

Backing for the group has come in from all corners of the theatre world with performers such as Derek Jacobi joining the campaign. He said: “I wholeheartedly support the Theatre Museum and deplore the closure of the Russell Street premises as an act of artistic vandalism.”

The Guardians are chaired by the Save London’s Theatre Campaign and the Society for Theatre Research with support from other leading theatre names such as producers Nica Burns, Thelma Holt and Richard Jordan, theatre consultant Ian Albery, playwrights Alan Ayckbourn and David Hare and performers Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave, Donald Sinden, Joanna Lumley, Timothy West and Raquel Cassidy. It is aiming to secure 100,000 signatures backing its campaign by Christmas.

Theatre Museum guardian Ian Herbert said: “Our supporting organisations alone account for tens of thousands of people who want an independent building for the Theatre Museum. If we can mobilise the theatregoing public as well, this target can be reached very easily. The V&A, and their masters the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, have suggested that no one cares about the Theatre Museum. We care about it passionately and we can and will prove that we are not alone.”

Visit www.theatremuseumguardians.org to sign up to its petition.