Irving Welsh's new play You'll Have Had Your Hole, which has received bad notices but good audiences at the West Yorks Playhouse, has been dropped from Euro Theatre '98, an English language new writing festival due to be staged at Brussel's Royal Flemish Theatre, when the festival producers saw the show last week and decided that it is not suitable for Belgian audiences. The play contains scenes of torture and gay rape.
Labour hostile to the arts, Hall claims
Sir Peter Hall has claimed that the Labour government is hostile to the arts, and has not policy in this area except to cut core funding. If this "policy" is not reversed, he said in an interview on Artsweek (The Performance Channel), Britain would become a "dumbed down American culture, not of any interest".
Referring to the Millenium Dome, which is receiving the personal attention of the Prime Minister, he said, "(The) Greenwich (Theatre) is closing for the want of £200,000 while we spend £750 million on the Dome round the corner", a situation which he described as "completely daft".
A demonstration in support of the Greenwich Theatre (due to close on 28th March) is to be held at noon on 21st March. The march will be led by Corin Redgrave and Juliet Stevenson.
The local council has agreed to increase its grant to the theatre, which has been fatally wounded by the loss of grants from the London Arts Board and the London Borough Grants Committee. An appeal has been started to raise enough money for the theatre to reopen in October.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's fiftieth birthday will be celebrated by a Royal Albert Hall concert featuring Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas, Elaine Paige and Michael Ball, on 7th April. The concert, which will include songs from his new show Whistle Down the Wind, will be held in aid of the National Youth Music Theatre.
Amy's View (Aldwych) has been extended to 18th April, after all performances (from its opening to 14th January to its proposed closure on 11th April) were sold out.
Southampton's Nuffield Theatre is so confident that local audiences will find Waiting for Godot entertaining that they have offered to give free tickets for any other production to any audience members who do not enjoy the play, which opens on 19th March.
Culture Secretary Chris Smith has announced a new £100 million Millenium Festival Fund, which will be funded from the five Lottery good causes, the New Millenium Experience Company, plus £15m from ACE. It will not be made clear until next month if theatres will be able to apply for funding from the new body, although it will be supporting events which incorporate arts festivals.