The Stage

Swiss theatre director Milo Rau is lobbying the EU to take steps to protect institutions within its member nations. Photo: Michiel Devijver

Over the past few years, there has been a worrying increase in political interference with artistic organisations across Europe and beyond. The pattern is familiar. Governments in some countries are increasingly involving themselves in the running of public institutions. At the most extreme end of the spectrum, this has involved the dismissal of those in positions of leadership who do not toe the party line.

In 2024, Slovakia experienced a cull of artistic leaders in multiple cultural organisations, including its National Theatre. In Bulgaria, attempts are being made to oust the current artistic director of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre in Sofia. There are other, less overt ways of exerting pressure on artistic institutions. Governments can use funding allocation as a means of control, in some cases withholding funding as a form of punishment. This is the case in Serbia, where festivals and cultural organisations that have even tacitly supported the widespread student-led protests have had funding denied, devastating the cultural scene.

Hungary has long led the way in this respect. The National Theatre’s artistic director is an ally of prime minister Viktor Orbán, and the independent scene is squeezed thin. A recent Tortoise podcast explored how Hungary is becoming the epicentre of global conservatism, exporting its government’s methods via neoconservative conferences. The Orbán playbook exists – and Donald Trump owns a copy. In addition to dispatching the National Guard to Washington last year to “clean up the city”, Trump has exerted control over the city’s two leading cultural entities: the Smithsonian Institution and the Kennedy Center; he is chair of the board of trustees at the latter, allowing him to eradicate what he describes as “woke” programming.

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In Turkey, ridicule president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at your peril. Artists addressing politically sensitive topics, including the 2016 coup attempt, can find themselves in hot water. This was the case with Six Against Turkey, a satirical play by Kosovan playwright Jeton Neziraj. Despite not being produced in Turkey, it faced threats of cancellation and a diplomatic reprimand from the Turkish embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it was labelled anti-government propaganda. The performance went ahead, but it was a reminder of how states can interfere with work beyond their borders.

The loss of freedom occurs by increment, until it comes in a rush. ‘Over there’ can quickly become ‘over here’

The response to all of this from artists in the UK and Ireland has been one of shock, sometimes coupled with a faint sense that this is an ‘over there’ issue rather than something that directly affects us. But this is not something we can afford to ignore. Even if we’re not subject to the same level of heavy-handed state interference in the UK, there is a growing culture of self-censorship, risk aversion and the excision of capital-P politics from theatre, which we don’t have to accept. The loss of freedom occurs by increment, until it comes in a rush. ‘Over there’ can quickly become ‘over here’.

Vital as it is to acknowledge the different forms state interference can take, we need to do more than that. We need to have mechanisms in place to protect our institutions and counter threats to artistic freedom. As part of his Resistance Now! campaign, Swiss theatre director Milo Rau is lobbying the EU to introduce a European Culture Freedom Act to protect the independence of institutions across member states. Some US cultural organisations are putting plans in place to protect themselves should Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents come through the doors. Arguably, we need to be better prepared in the UK too.

As Umberto Eco wrote in his distillation of the tactics of fascists, they love a plot. They love narrative. Theatre has a capacity not only to challenge their narrative, but to encourage empathy, which is why the right wants to subdue and control it. It’s important to be alert to this but also to recognise that this is a shared struggle and one from which we are not immune.