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'Theatre isn't optional — it's fundamental': London's theatre leaders on what they need from the government

Robert Smael
Robert Smael

Months after closing, London’s theatres are still in limbo — the sector’s leaders tell us what they need from the Government now.

Vicky Featherstone, Artistic Director, Royal Court

(Helen Murray)
(Helen Murray)

We received ACE Emergency funds in July and have had a vigorous strategy of fundraising and minimising costs over the summer, knowing that the Cultural Recovery Funds were going to be this autumn. We hope to get what we applied for from the Culture Recovery Fund, which will get us to the end of March. But we could get less than that, or nothing — we have no indication as yet. We are still intending to reopen in mid-November with a nimble, adaptable project (Living Newspaper) for small audiences in a rolling programme which changes each week. Longer term, the return to full houses seems even further than we hoped, and so mid-term plans are under review.

What we actually need from the government now is a plan which acknowledges the importance of and vulnerability of the freelancers in our sector who are all viable. Without them stepping up and either allowing us to apply for and use funds to directly support them or by listening to them about the inadequacies of the self employed income support scheme (SEISS), we are at serious risk of losing new and experienced talent, from scenic artists and stage managers to actors and education workshop leaders. All these jobs are viable. The whole sector has always felt that this year is a crisis but next year, 2012/22, is when we will actually run out of track. Without a pipeline of support, or strategy to return to full houses, income generation, we feel very anxious about the mid-long term — as do so many sectors of society and the economy.

Our response to yesterday’s wage subsidy announcement is bittersweet. There are parts of it which will undoubtedly help us get through to March in a more nuanced and effective way, but it forces an even greater divide between institutions and those who have been encouraged to choose freelance routes.

Lynette Linton, Artistic Director, Bush Theatre

(Matt Writtle)
(Matt Writtle)

We welcomed the government’s £1.57bn support package. Besides the furlough scheme — which was nothing short of a lifeline — this is the only other government support we’ve been eligible for. We’re still waiting on a decision on our application but the intricate journey from page to stage typically takes three months, which means even if we are successful, it will take some time to restart performances and doing so under social distancing guidelines presents significant financial challenges.

Despite these setbacks we have used our creativity to adapt and I’m proud of our successes. The Protest, our series of films created in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, has been watched 130,000 times across our digital channels: an audience three times as big as the annual visitors to our building.

We are determined to do all we can to protect our workforce — including the freelance creatives that we work with and those who are not able to carry out their jobs for the foreseeable future due to restrictions. We welcome the extension of support announced yesterday but urge the government to go further.

Far too many of our freelance creatives have so far fallen through the gaps of the SEISS and we have already seen hundreds of staff that work for national arts organisations made redundant. These groups need the urgent attention of our industry and government. And as we have mentioned repeatedly, we know that Black, Asian and ethnically diverse arts workers are most likely to be in junior roles that are at risk of redundancy or working as freelancers. This is why we partnered with Eclipse and Black Womxn in Theatre on the #AllOfUs campaign. This is the type of financial support that should be coming directly from the government.

It’s clear we are far from a return to normal. Does that mean theatre is not “viable”? I don’t want to ever see theatre as optional, or as “nice to have”. It is fundamental. We need it to process the moment we are living through and to rebuild strong communities as we journey out of this crisis. But if we are to make it through we need significant, tailored support to ensure our sector survives and retains the diverse workforce that is its heart and soul.

Nadia Fall, Artistic Director, Theatre Royal Stratford East

(Adrian Lourie)
(Adrian Lourie)

We were originally told we would receive our grant in early October, but now that’s looking like mid-October. We’re still not absolutely sure, and we don’t know what we will get. Even if we are successful, the grant doesn’t encourage us to make work, and it certainly doesn’t spare us from making some really tough decisions. What it would do is help us get through to March — it’s April 2021 onwards which is looking really hard.

Without certainty about funding for the next six months, planning is almost impossible. This money was supposed to be for October 1 onwards, and we are about to reach that date with no idea if we will get the support but also knowing if we do, we have to spend it by March 31!

This week we announced Petrichor, a VR piece by Thick Skin which can be enjoyed by a socially distanced audience in the theatre but also online at home. We hope to do some other small scale work in the theatre before Christmas, but we were hoping that we might open in a fuller way in the New Year.

There is definitely a positive response to and an appetite for live work that I witnessed in our recent outdoor performance of 846Live as part of the Greenwich and Docklands Festival, as well as with the Talking Heads at the Bridge Theatre. I found it incredibly moving to sit amongst fellow audience members, albeit socially distanced, with masks. However, I think that the new measures may mean fewer people are prepared to travel to the theatre. A local audience becomes more important than ever.

What we need from the government is money that encourages us to do what we were built to do, which is make work. We can be innovative around the challenges. Most urgently we need support for freelancers — we won’t be able to reopen if there is no one left to make the work. We also need insurance, so that when we make work we aren’t destroyed if we have to close due to illness or lockdown. We need the government to realise it will take time to get back to where we were and that we’ll need support beyond the next financial year. The wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday will provide support while we cannot operate on full capacity, although as the Chancellor said, it will not save all jobs. We are waiting for more detail to understand how it can be used, and what this means for freelancers, particularly those that have not had support to date.

What’s keeping us afloat is an absolute belief in the importance of our theatre and of theatre as a whole. We’re going to need the communal “group therapy” that live work offers in abundance, to get us through these tough times. Our staff and our freelance community have been so fantastic and their hope and determination is what keeps us going.

Rupert Goold, Artistic Director, Almeida Theatre

(Matt Writtle)
(Matt Writtle)

The complete lack of ticket income and the cost of the shows we had to put to bed was debilitating enough for a theatre of the Almeida’s size but above all it’s been the endless uncertainty and how that has continuously eroded our ability to plan. While we recognise the government has had to manage an impossible situation, we simply need greater clarity around dates. Even if it means bad news, don’t give us promises we know can’t be kept or false hope.

We deeply welcomed the Government’s package for the arts back in July but we are still waiting to hear if and how much support we will receive and this will be crucial in getting the Almeida back on its feet, informing when and how we can reopen. We need DCMS to keep to its schedule and we need to know that all the money pledged will find its way into the sector. We will plough as much of any grant we receive as we can towards freelance artists and industry professionals who are in an even more precarious position than the venues. They are the people who built our industry and it is they who will renew it. As far as yesterday’s announcement goes, it needs to be coupled with a commitment to help us actually make work so we can bring people back to do their jobs as the furlough scheme winds down. We have been working hard to find ways that we can reopen in a way that is safe and viable and are excited about the possibilities but we need that support. For now as we await the grant news we are just so thankful for all the messages and donations from our supporters and audiences who have helped us enormously through this nightmarish time.

Rachel O’Riordan, Artistic Director, and Sian Alexander, Executive Director, Lyric Hammersmith

(Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd)
(Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd)

Any grant we receive is only going to be part of the solution for us. That’s why we are making tough decisions about how to safeguard the Lyric’s future, including reducing costs and entering redundancy consultations. Our local community has rallied round to save the Lyric before and we will need their support again at this critical time: we have recently launched a new community crowdfunding campaign.

We’ve worked hard to reduce our costs and we’ve been able to draw on the support of our regular funders and our limited but prudent reserves — though obviously we’re now running out of those and so the grant decisions will be critical for us. We are hugely grateful for such a significant investment in the arts from the government, and devastated we have still had to lose jobs.

We want to welcome audiences back as soon as we can, but the situation is constantly changing. We have had so many different plans for this year already and we are working on a plan to open with some socially distanced work, but developments over the past couple of weeks are making us rethink. Until we can reopen to full houses without social distancing it doesn’t stack up financially.

The culture recovery fund and the support for jobs are vital immediate support for our sector. We know that it’s going to take us time to rebuild so what we really want to see is support for the longer term that will help us to do that. More notice of future restrictions would also help — we could plan for it. Theatre is a live art form; we depend on people being together both on and offstage. Clearer parameters will enable us to serve our audiences and communities, and employ the enormous and skilled workforce in our industry.

The furlough scheme has been a lifeline so we are pleased there’s more support with the wage subsidy scheme and will be looking at details. However employers will still need to contribute significantly to salary costs and the support is only in place for 6 months. It will take longer than that for us to rebuild our business so this won’t affect our need to make long term changes. We are very mindful of all the freelancers and artists who are such a vital part of our industry who it won’t help and we are pleased to see there is some further extension of the self-employed scheme, although we know not everyone qualifies for that.

The Lyric has survived so much in its 125 year history and we are determined that we will be here at the heart of Hammersmith for the next 125 years.

Mehmet Ergen and Leyla Nazli, co-founders of Arcola Theatre

(Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd)
(Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd)

Around 80 percent of our income comes from ticket sales. A grant from the Culture Recovery Fund would sustain us for the next six months and enable us to find ways to keep the theatre alive — we will know the outcome of our application on October 5. We want desperately to get back to creating art with and for our community. We are very grateful to Arts Council England, who have supported Arcola with their Emergency Response Fund — this has seen us through to the end of September, enabled us to bring a small number of the team back from furlough to plan for the future, and begin alterations to make our spaces safe. But since the fund is not for new projects, we will have to raise significant amounts to continue creating work — and we will still have to make significant cuts to our staffing costs, artistic programme costs and overheads. It is likely to be an extremely difficult winter.

In March, when we suspended performances and closed our building, we had just started Arcola’s 20th anniversary season, our most ambitious season to date. We still plan to produce all the shows we programmed for 2020 and ensure that our theatre thrives after this crisis. However, the size of our performance spaces and the nature of our building means that opening for socially distanced indoor performance isn’t viable, for now at least. We are exploring other options to create new work.

During the summer months, there was a real willingness from audiences to support live theatre but many organisations were not in a position to stage productions. Our concern is that further restrictions will make it even harder for organisations to deliver or restart activity than it already is. There is no government-backed insurance scheme for the performing arts, and resuming productions carries high start-up costs and risks. If audiences can’t return, or don’t want to, it’s potentially an extinction-level event for our arts sector.

Freelancers make up 70 percent of the theatre workforce, and too many have been ineligible for the SEISS scheme to date. That the extended job support scheme only covers 20 percent of their income is deeply concerning. If there isn’t new work for them, we will lose skills and talent that it will be impossible to get back.

We have plans to keep our doors open to our community when it’s safe, but it will be an unprecedented challenge. Like the rest of the arts sector, we need all the help we can get.

Charlotte Bennett and Katie Posner, Artistic Directors, Paines Plough

(Natasha Pszenicki)
(Natasha Pszenicki)

We need the government to recognise that the arts are a priority and a lifeline to so many people, especially during times like these. As a touring company we are able to be nimble and responsive to the artists we work with and the audiences we serve. We do however rely on our relationships with buildings and partners we create work with, and therefore are beholden to the impact the pandemic has had on them. We need the government to recognise that theatre is an ecology and that producing companies like Paines Plough are a vital part of that; ultimately, that the future of our sector relies on support that serves us all.

We are currently planning a digital festival which will continue to serve audiences that are not able to access our live work. However, whilst this is a positive way to continue connecting with audiences, the semi-lockdown we are now in is hugely unsettling. We are in a continued state of flux following inconsistent communication from our government around the relaxing of social distancing, and the tightening of restrictions this week makes it almost impossible to plan in the short and medium term. This not only affects our ability to plan for a financially secure future but also to rebuild a positive and resilient arts sector when it is safe to return. It has felt recently like our industry has been able to start planning for live work again — if we go into another, deeper lockdown, not only will the work be halted, more artists will lose their livelihoods and we will lose the confidence of future audiences. Our sector is resilient and we will always find a way to tell stories but those stories and who tells them will be greatly compromised and that is deeply worrying.

Any scheme to continue supporting employers to not make redundancies is welcome and we will be looking in detail at the chancellor’s wage subsidy scheme to see if this can enable us to continue to support some employees. This will not sadly solve the wider impact that coronavirus has had, especially on our venue partners and freelance collaborators where significant redundancies and loss of earnings will see a long term devastating impact on our world class, vibrant arts scene.

James Pidgeon, Artistic Director, Shoreditch Town Hall

Having reopened Shoreditch Town Hall’s doors at the beginning of the month to start to meaningfully rebuild and adapt, I fear that this week’s announcements are just the start of us having to take huge steps backwards. The impending semi-lockdown will have a significant impact — Shoreditch Town Hall is a completely independent charitable trust that relies entirely on a diverse earned-income model, built on buoyant events and cultural sectors, high local footfall, strong consumer confidence, and a thriving local economy. This week’s measures impact all of these things, and even if they don’t always affect us directly, we will no doubt feel the knock-on impact due to the interconnected nature of the cultural, leisure and hospitality industries.

While the chancellor’s job protection plans announced yesterday are very welcome and will definitely help an organisation of the Town Hall’s size, the government needs to ensure that financial support reaches all areas of the cultural sector’s complex ecosystem, particularly when it comes to fully supporting freelancers. We’re right on the cusp of losing a whole generation of new talent in the sector and if not urgently addressed the impact of this will be felt for years.

The government’s £1.57 billion rescue package for arts, culture and heritage industries was hugely welcomed, but when you drill into the detail of what this investment needs to cover it will only go so far and unfortunately won’t support everyone. We’ve applied for funding and expect to hear the outcome in the coming weeks — this decision will dictate if and how we’re able to move forward. The Town Hall, alongside the whole cultural sector, is once again ready to respond and adapt as necessary — we’re more prepared then we were back in March. But who knows who will survive and how long for.

Kate Varah, Executive Director, Old Vic

(Manuel Harlan)
(Manuel Harlan)

The ability of the cultural industry to generate income has pretty much been decimated by the crisis. At the Old Vic, we have had to pivot to accommodate a 90 percent drop in earnings with sustained fixed overheads to meet and a workforce of 250 to support. Government support via the CJRS has been instrumental in the theatre remaining solvent during this period and our being able to support staff.

A charity in receipt of no public subsidy, the Old Vic has taken all artistic and education work online through our live-streamed IN CAMERA series and our free content programme YOUR OLD VIC. These programmes have helped us maintain connections with audiences, the industry and supporters, and we are incredibly grateful for the support we have received so far. Without this generosity and belief in what we do being necessary during and beyond the pandemic, we would not be standing still.

Hosting our work online is our way of staying connected with audiences and providing some joy when we could all, quite frankly, do with some. But in financial terms it is just a temporary solution that offers minimal monetary support - the income from these endeavours is simply not enough to secure The Old Vic's long-term future. And of course, the main aim is to reopen, to welcome the public back into our 202 year-old auditorium to see work created by freelancers who have been so badly affected by the pandemic.

Until we can do that, our financial situation remains acute as we await to hear the decision regarding our application to the Cultural Recovery Fund. We will need time to reflect on how the announcement of further support for workforces and tax cuts could help our organisation and the thousands of others in our sector, many of whom are struggling for day to day survival.

Julian Bird, CEO, Society of London Theatre (SOLT)

We were making genuine progress towards a date for stage 5 and the positive news is that we continue to work closely with government and Public Health England to ensure that we can open safely with fuller audiences. Since August 15, indoor theatres have been allowed to reopen with social distancing measures in place, allowing for around 20-30 percent audience capacity. The small number of venues that have been able to do this have shown real innovation and creativity and audiences have responded positively. For the majority of theatres, however, opening with social distancing is not economically viable as they need around 60-70 percent audience capacity to just break even.

The Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre have launched the See it Safely toolkit and a safety mark to support venues and show audiences that the theatre is compliant with the latest government guidelines. DCMS are encouraging the roll out of this scheme across the wider live events sector. Fortunately theatres are currently exempt from the new restrictions but it will be disastrous for those that have announced plans to reopen if they have to close again and could lead to further job losses. We estimate that a significant majority of the 290,000 workforce in the theatre/performance arts sectors will be unemployed or facing redundancy once furlough ends on October 31.

In the theatre sector, 70 percent of the workforce is estimated to be freelance/self-employed. Of these, 50 percent have not qualified for any COVID related support payments and we fear many in the sector will not be able to benefit from the job support scheme. The Chancellor‘s announcements yesterday do little to help the theatre and performing arts sector where the majority of venues and productions remain closed. Our previously viable and world beating sector is facing decimation as with no income organisations cannot bring their staff back to work. Without targeted and vitally needed support for the workforce in this sector, we will see further job losses and redundancies. While the extension of the self employed scheme is welcome, with the amount offered reduced to 20 percent thousands will face real financial peril.

What we need from the government is: a realistic time frame for when we can reopen to fuller audiences and play our part in bringing audiences back into the West End; a government-backed insurance scheme for business interruption cancellation which includes Covid Risk; an extension of the Theatre Tax Relief scheme and an extension of the five percent cultural VAT rate on tickets sold so that it can help us when we are able to reopen.

Jon Morgan, Director, Theatres Trust

A lot of theatres were hoping that when social distancing was reviewed in November that would mean theatres could reopen fully. Although the 10pm curfew doesn’t directly affect theatres, the broader implications of the need to contain the second spike means that very few are anticipating opening this calendar year. We already know that major operators like ATG and Delfont Mackintosh are not going to open until the spring. Others may well now delay until the new year.

Over the last few months surveys have shown audience confidence is gradually growing. Seeing how people are responding to holidays etc after the latest announcements, however, shows the general confidence of the population is decreasing. We are working with others in the industry to put together a series of measures that would make theatres as safe as they possibly can be with fuller audiences but we still don’t know when that will be possible to implement.

What we need is for the government to agree a set of standards that would make it possible to reopen theatres with fuller audiences, with social distancing. We also need an insurance guarantee scheme so people can take the risk of putting on shows, similar to the one the film sector has, and further sector specific financial support.

The Job Support Scheme is unlikely to make enough of a difference to allow theatres to reopen with social distancing. Up until now, the furlough scheme has been supporting the industry, as well as not taking on freelancers and in some cases making staff redundant. The Job Support Scheme won’t change that.

The generosity of theatre-goers, supporting their local theatres through our #SaveOurTheatres campaign is important especially for smaller theatres. I would say the end of the year is the crunch point for the sector but the next six months is really critical. If some close permanently there is a great risk that we will never get them back.