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Is Regional Theatre Dying?Dateline: 20th February, 2000 According to the Boyden Report, 30 out of the 50 regional producing theatres interviewed were in deficit last year. When National Lottery money is taken out of consideration, the Report went on, most are trading insolvently because their liabilities exceed their assets. Almost every week we read of companies reaching the end of their financial tether. The National Lottery, once seen as the saviour of British regional theatre, has poured money into new building or renovation of existing theatres, but now we are seeing totally unexpected results: beautiful, state-of-the-art theatres which their managements cannot afford to run! I wanted to look at the Boyden Report for myself, so I naturally went to the ACE site, for it was Ace which commissioned it. It wasn't there. I searched through every page on the site but got nowhere. It didn't actually take me very long, for, although the ACE site is undoubtedly stylish and well-designed, it is actually pretty light on information, and there is no mention anywhere of the Boyden Report. Now government sites, like the DfEE or DCMS, always put full reports online, even if they don't intend to do anything about them (as with the Robinson Report), so why does ACE not do the same? After all, it is a government-funded organisation, and so should be subject to the same rules of disclosure that government departments have to follow. Not being able to read the actual report, then we simply have to accept that what the reports on the Report say is true, that regional producing theatres are in a parlous financial state. But does that mean they are dying? It all depends on what you mean by ... If by dying we are referring purely to financial status, then we have to say that they are seriously ill and their condition gives rise to grave concern. But are they going to get the intensive care beds that they need? To keep the NHS metaphor going, it all depends on whereabouts in the country they are. We are in a transitional period. We are leaving the period of centralisation in which ACE, based in London, dominated the rest of the country, and are moving into a new era of decentralisation in which most local funding is devolved to the Regional Arts Boards. The old system was a disaster, with London-based bureaucrats making financial decisions affecting theatres throught the length and breadth of England, which were based entirely on bits of paper. They sat in their (presumably overcrowded, because there were so many of them) offices in Great Peter Street and, without any local knowledge in the majority of cases, had the power of life or death over companies which were no more to them than names on pieces of paper. Now, with devolved funding, there is just a chance that the beds might be available. But here let us abandon the health care metaphor: it's becoming too restrictive. Let's look at the coal industry, or rather, the coal industry as seen through the eyes of Alan Plater in Close the Coalhouse Door. In discussing the history of the industry, the play talks about regionalisation, rationalisation and all the other -isations mining went through. And what did they all mean? According to Geordie and Jackie, just one thing - closing a few more pits. And that, I rather fear, will be the future for regional producing theatres. I can foresee that each RAB will support fully one major company for each conurbation with core funding, and perhaps one or two others will get some support which will be conditional upon local authority backing. We've seen the first signs of this already, with all the theatres in one city coming under a single management. The first examples of this were in Edinburgh and Sheffield, but it is very much a live option in other places, in Liverpool, for instance. The original motivation behind this development is cost-saving by sharing management and from economies of scale, but it makes the closure of one or other of the theatres so much easier. Without a huge influx of money, whether from the government or the Lottery, the picture of regional theatre will be very different at this time next year. Articles Indices:
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