The Stage

Brighton’s Komedia axes theatre output as ACE withdraws its grant

Published Monday 17 December 2007 at 14:20 by Matthew Hemley

Brighton venue Komedia will be forced to axe its entire theatre output under Arts Council England’s plans to remove the company’s £160,000 annual grant from April.

Although the venue’s main programme of comedy and music will not be affected by the loss of the grant, Komedia said it would have to stop producing all theatre and dance shows that are subsidised by the funding, including its children’s line-up and cabaret for elderly people.

In addition, it will stop producing shows for the city’s annual fringe festival and have to end its Aurora Nova Touring programme, which takes some of the best shows performed at Aurora Nova at the Edinburgh Fringe on tour. Aurora Nova was co-formed by Tim Hawkins of Komedia.

The grant announcement comes just months after Komedia invested more than £1 million in renovating its facilities, including a £75,000 contribution from ACE, to make the venue more suited to theatre productions.

Any reduction in theatre productions would be a major blow to the city, which also lost the Gardner Arts Centre last April after ACE pulled the venue’s funding.

A spokesman for Komedia said staff were “reeling” at the decision and added: “It is a grave disappointment to see the arts offering to Brighton reduced yet again. The city will now inevitably lose Komedia Brighton’s award-winning theatre programme including its kid’s theatre programme, community theatre events, the hugely successful Comedy 4 Kids shows and numerous variety shows for the elderly. It is severely disappointing that the arts council cannot see the value of our work.”

He added: “Only recently, as part of our £1m refurbishment, did the Arts Council contribute £75,000 of tax payers money to the rebuilding of our theatre space which we will now no longer be open to theatre performances.”

However, Komedia claimed it was confident it could change ACE’s decision by “reminding them that Komedia not only meets all their objectives, but exceeds them too”.

A spokeswoman for ACE said there had been concerns “for some time” that Komedia was not “fulfilling its role” as a body regularly funded by the arts council.

She added: “We have expressed these concerns to Komedia over the last few years, particularly with regard to the quantity of the arts council funded theatre programme. We had hoped that these concerns would be addressed, but unfortunately they remain. We also believe that Komedia is a thriving venue and therefore has a viable future without arts council funding, and this is reflected in our proposal.”

She stressed that plans to remove its funding were just proposals and said Komedia could respond in writing.

The venue’s directors are due to meet tonight to discuss how they intend to proceed and appeal the move. ACE will make its final decision on budget cuts in January.