The recent hue and cry over the imminent closure of the Gardner Arts Centre in Sussex is a reminder that theatres don't go down without a struggle. That's just as well, because it seems likely that the theatrical community will need all the courage it can muster over the next 12 months. Now is as good a time as any to start shouting very loudly indeed.
There is a chill wind blowing through British arts funding and it seems that what is happening at the Gardner may be repeated in various forms all over the country in the next couple of years. Several government departments have had to reduce their spending by 5%, and now similar cuts are planned for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Arts Council has been preparing people for the worst by talking about the need for tough decisions.
In 2007, Arts Council clients will discover what level of funding they can expect for the three years from April 2008. As local governments feel the pressure to cut spending and money is diverted to sport in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, it seems likely that screams of anguish will ring out all over the theatrical community. And that's just from established clients, let alone those who still hope to get a foot on the funding ladder.
It is a very long way from the heady days of the 2002 spending review that saw £25m injected into drama across the country, at a single stroke rejuvenating regional theatre, which had been so starved of cash it seemed best suited to last rites. The psychological benefits of that decision have lasted much longer than the money: its effects continue to be felt despite the disappointing funding settlement of spring 2005.
But what has really changed since the 2002 review is the relationship between the cultural industries and the government. "Cool Britannia" is but a distant memory, as a paranoid government treats the arts with growing suspicion and appears to view subsidy solely as a way of implementing a social agenda. The old Jennie Lee principle of arms-length funding has gone out the window, and the Arts Council seems more intent on saving itself than saving the arts - even if that means becoming a government agency whose primary concern is a tick-box culture of social work. The council's fear for its future is such that theatre companies say they are being asked to endorse a five point statement in support of the Arts Council at their annual reviews. One would have thought that the Arts Council should rather be signing endorsements in support of its clients.
What surprises is that while everyone can see the iceberg looming, few seem prepared to make much of a song and dance until the ship actually hits. Privately, theatres and companies fear the worst, but few are prepared to speak out because, as one Arts Council client put it to me, "Everyone's keeping their heads down in the hope that the shadow will pass over them and they'll survive."
What's clear is that there will be major casualties, and some sectors will be hit harder than others because neither the government nor the Arts Council will want too many dead bodies lying around. Touring theatre is likely to bear the brunt because, as the threatened closure of the Gardner has shown, buildings often become a focus for campaigns in a way that individual companies do not. Close a building, and cleaners and caterers lose their jobs too, the local economy is hit and the boarded up corpse of the building is visible to all in the community. Cut touring, and with luck nobody will really notice. But I will, and you should too because the very future of theatre is at stake.
Currently the big subsidised companies, regional theatre and touring theatre see themselves as rivals for limited resources. But it's time to pull together rather than allowing the brawniest companies to get to the table first and carve out individual survival plans. In the end, it all comes down to the same fight because in theatre's delicate ecology a small-scale touring company has quite as important a place as the National Theatre, and you can't have one without the other.
So, please, all together now - let's start the shouting.
