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Five (or Six?) National Theatres?Dateline: 4th April, 2000 We already have the Royal National Theatre, which is meant to be the national theatre of the whole of the British Isles. If the Welsh Arts Council's Drama Strategy is to be implemented in full - and we cannot be sure about that, given the opposition - Wales is to have two national theatres, one for the English language and one for the Welsh. So what about Scotland? Should it have its own national theatre? And if so, should it have two, in English and Gaelic? And should Northern Ireland have its own national theatre, too? The whole process of devolution has brought the question of national identity to the fore and the idea of national theatres for each part of the UK is inevitably tied in with this. In other words, the question is political rather than artistic. Wales, having its own language which is spoken by a reasonable proportion of the population, has always felt the necessity to have such an organisation and Clwyd Theatr Cymru has been the de facto, if not de iure, National Theatre of Wales for many years. In Scotland, however, the idea has not been mentioned except by the small(ish) band of nationalists until after devolution: in December 1999 the Federation of Scottish Theatre did a complete U-turn from its pre-devolution position and suggested that a National Theatre of Scotland should be set up. As time passes, it seems inevitable that the pressure for these national theatres will increase, but it this necessarily a good thing from the point of view of theatre in general? Where's the money coming from? Aye, there's the rub. Theatre is already underfunded in every part of the UK: to set up three or four (or five, if we are to have a Gaelic NT in Scotland) national theatres will be expensive. Will the government (or the Scottish Parliament, or the Welsh Assembly, or the devolved government at Stormont) provide additional monies to fund these new entities, or must they be funded from existing resources? The Welsh experience shows what will happen: scarce resources will have to be redeployed to cover the NT costs, which will lead to howls of outrage as theatres and companies lose part (or all) of their grants and are forced to cut back on staff and productions, or even close altogether. Again Wales shows the way: the Drama Strategy is so radical that, if implemented in full, overall provision in the principality will decline rather than increase. The FST proposals are a kind of compromise: it suggests that the NT of Scotland should not be building-based but should create and tour its productions to existing theatres. This will certainly reduce costs but could cause some additional problems in the relationships between theatres and cities: for instance, where should it play in Edinburgh? If it's a big theatre like the Playhouse, could its productions fit the Citizens or the Tron in Glasgow? If it's the Traverse, the new-writing theatre, would it play at Perth or Pitlochry? What do you think? Do you believe that each part of the UK should have its own national theatre? If it does, where should the money come from? If there's no new money (and there won't be!), what should be cut? And should there be a National Theatre of England? Should the RNT take on that function or should it be the NT for the whole of the UK? Articles Indices:
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