The Stage

Leading actors lobby chancellor for increased theatre funding

Published Tuesday 6 July 2004 at 15:05 by Ruth Gillespie

Leading industry figures have written to chancellor Gordon Brown urging him to provide the theatre with a “financial boost” in his comprehensive spending review, which is due to be revealed on July 12.

Richard Attenborough, Timothy West, Edward Fox, Sam West, Ian McKellen, Juliet Stevenson and Antony Sher said they applauded the chancellor’s decision to invest an additional £25 million into producing theatres three years ago and highlighted the positive impact that investment made on both morale within the industry and the quality of work in the UK.

However, they stressed that unless the momentum of increased funding was maintained, the future success of the industry would be uncertain. The letter stated: “We recognise the extent to which you are under pressure from other spending priorities but we are convinced that unless we build on the investment already made, the gains of the past three years may prove transitory.”

This follows an event at the Houses of Parliament earlier this month, where members of Equity, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and the Musicians’ Union lobbied MPs in a bid to convince the government not to compromise funding for theatre.

Speaking at the event, Ian McKellen said: “We have long since accepted that arts sponsorship comes from a variety of sources and three years back the government set a fine example to the private sector by showing it cared for theatre with a much-needed boost of £25 million of public funds, ear-marked for those regional theatres where audiences will have noticed a decline in activity.

“That sum may seem generous of the chancellor but he knows well that in the fourth richest economy in the world, our theatre industry contributes an annual £2.6 billion. The commercial theatre sector cannot survive without a healthy subsidised sector to develop plays for the West End and film-makers could not survive without the flow of talent from our theatres. To those politicians who are now weighing in the balance the funding of local theatres I ask, why shouldn’t the country continue to support the best theatre in the world?”