A study from the BBC has found that last year, the 40-top funded theatre companies put on 229 original commissions, a 31% drop from the 332 productions put on in 2014.
For the research, it analysed the showings from 2014 and 2024 at the UK’s top 40 venues, festivals and touring companies that have the highest annual grants from Arts Council England (ACE), the country’s government’s culture funding body, and counted the number of professional productions over an hour that ran for at least a week.
