The Guardian view on local theatres: the shows must go on

From the Ffwrnes in Llanelli to Eden Court in Inverness, the UK’s approximately 1,200 theatres will see larger than usual audiences in the next few weeks. Pantomimes are not just fun for families: with around 3 million tickets sold annually, they are one of the most reliable income streams for many venues. They are also crucial bonding exercises between arts organisations and the communities they serve. Strengthening this relationship, so that people pay more than one annual visit, is a challenge for all those who want local theatres to flourish.

Cuts have lent such concerns a new urgency. Arts Council England capital grants have halved in eight years, while some local authorities have virtually stopped arts funding altogether. As a consequence, and even though overall audience figures are healthy, theatres across the UK are struggling to continue to present fresh work and maintain their buildings.

The Guardian’s outgoing chief theatre critic, Michael Billington, wrote this week that the disappearance of the regional repertory company (a group of actors working together in one theatre) is the greatest regret of his long career. The collapse of such a company at the Liverpool Everyman a year ago means that Dundee and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon are now the only places where an actor can gain this kind of training. Elsewhere, producing houses – theatres that create their own shows as well as hosting touring ones – are cutting back. This means not only fewer plays, but fewer new ones (since these are riskier to put on), and fewer actors in those plays (so more one-man and one-woman shows). It also means reduced opportunities for designers, technicians and set builders. Cities such as Leeds, Manchester and Bradford have continued to invest in their theatres, but difficulties are often at their most acute in towns that are simultaneously feeling the damaging effects of declining high streets, library closures and so on.

The vibrancy and variety of London’s stages makes its theatre scene one of the creative wonders of the world. But while these venues ought to be part of a national artistic ecosystem, there is a danger that the cultural life of the capital is becoming further removed from the rest of the country. Though in some respects theatre has become more diverse and inclusive – for example, with the advent of race-blind and gender-blind casting, inequalities of class and geography have recently increased.

It isn’t all bad news. James Brining, the artistic director of Leeds Playhouse, spoke recently of his centre having a “civic function” as well as an artistic one. Theatres across the UK are reinventing themselves as community hubs, working with older people as well as youth groups, and hosting all manner of activities. They are also becoming more entrepreneurial. The Hall for Cornwall in Truro now shares its building with microbusinesses.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and such developments could help to knit theatres more tightly into the social fabric. But if theatres are to retain their distinctiveness, they must also have the resources to tell stories to their particular audiences. Leeds Playhouse won high praise for reopening after its refurbishment with a play on a local theme: Charley Miles’s There Are No Beginnings, about the impact on four women of the Yorkshire Ripper murders.

Regional theatres are an important aspect of the social and cultural lives of their communities, and not just over the festive season. Pantomimes might not seem important. But oh yes they are.