Nottinghamshire County Council has confirmed it is to axe the whole of its £94,500 annual grant to Nottingham Playhouse.
The theatre says it is “very disappointed” with the authority’s decision and “has chosen to ignore our supporters” who made their views known as part of a public consultation.
Council leader Councillor Alan Rhodes said the government was forcing the authority to save £154m over the next three years—a quarter of what was needed to keep services at their current level.
“Nottingham Playhouse ran a concerted campaign to protect its council funding which attracted support from the arts community locally and nationally.
“Along with all the survey responses, letters, phone calls, petitions, emails and tweets we received—these comments were carefully considered when deciding which of our initial proposals we could afford to change.
“The Playhouse attracts funding from a variety of sources, including the Arts Council and the City Council, and our grant accounts for just a small percentage of the total public funding.”
Nottingham Playhouse’s artistic director Giles Croft said, “We believe the people of the county deserve their own producing theatre which can tell their own stories—just as we have done so well over many years with locally inspired and written pieces such as The Ashes, The Spirit of the Man, Diary of a Football Nobody and our planned piece about the Sherwood Foresters.
“It is clear from the level of support we have received that the residents of the county recognise this and it is a shame that Nottinghamshire County Council have chosen to ignore their wishes entirely.”
He added that the Playhouse had already been subject to Arts Council funding cuts and the removal of the county council grant would “impact greatly on an already lean theatre”.
The Playhouse has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, producing world and European premières and achieved the two highest-selling dramas in its history (apart from pantomimes), John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Matthew Spangler’s adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner.