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Dateline: 17th May, 2006
Reinstate Borderline Funding, Letter Demands A letter from leading actors and playwrights in today's Scottish newspaper The Herald has demanded that the Scottish Arts Council should reinstate its funding for Borderline Theatre. Singed by Ken Alexander, Peter Arnott, Maureen Beattie, Lorne Boswell, John Byrne, David Cosgrove, Anne Marie Di Mambro, Joseph Farrell, Craig Ferguson, Gregor Fisher, Stephen Greenhorn, Gerard Kelly, Liz Lochhead, Forbes Masson, Una McLean, Aonghas MacNeacail, Douglas Maxwell, Bill Paterson, Brian Pettifer, Donald Smith, Elaine C Smith and Gerda Stevenson, the letter attacks the SAC compaint that Borderline is "audience focused", "What kind of deficiency can it be in a theatre company," it asks, "that they hold the interests of the audience in mind, or that they aim to entertain, instruct and stimulate people who come to see their shows? "If that is a fault, let us remember the numbers of dramatists who have been guilty of that fault. We would start with the Greeks, proceed through commedia dell'arte, condemn Shakespeare and the Elizabethans, and go on to cast aspersions on Molière, Goldoni, Goldsmith, Shaw, O'Casey and even the nineteenth-century rebels such as Ibsen, Pirandello, Strindberg and Brecht, etc. They were all audience-focused, because that is what theatre does. They did not aim to play to empty halls. It was Dr Johnson who wrote in a manifesto at the opening of the Drury Lane Theatre: "We who live to please must please to live." The Arts Council's attitude, they say, is "beyond caricature" and they as, "Are the SAC managers really in thrall to some unacknowledged stereotype learned when studying theatre history?" The letter also points out how much more than just the company's performances will be lost, citing its youth theatre and lifelong learning programmes. "If it is to retain a shred of credibility," the letter ends, "the SAC must reverse its decision and allow Borderline to continue with its full financial support." An online petition to the Scottish Parliament has been set up. You can sign it by going to http://petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=2702 Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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