‘A national emergency’: UK theatres fear closure after more local funding cuts

Titania and the fairy chorus in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, which has seen subsidies cut. Photograph: Mike Kwasniak

The chill blast of damaging cuts to provincial arts venues has returned to Berkshire this weekend as the cash-strapped local authority becomes the latest to scrap its cultural budget.

Local MP and former prime minister Theresa May was among those to salute a reprieve back in February. But theatre lovers in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead now fear their venues are in jeopardy again, since no cultural funds appear in the next budget.