Running a theatre has become a seriously unappealing job, according to many of those working at Britain’s performance venues. While larger institutions, such as the Barbican, RSC and National Theatre, can still attract and keep good artistic directors, regional theatres and arts centres are struggling. A job heading of one of these offers the same stress, accountability and long hours, but on a smaller budget and with a smaller salary.
Burnout and disillusionment are now widespread, according to insiders including dancer Kenneth Tharp, who ran The Place, near London’s Euston station, until 2016. Last week, Tharp pointed out on Twitter (now known as X), that there had been a “huge churn of artistic directors (some after relatively short tenures)”, citing 14 venues in the past two years.
His words have prompted a debate among leading names in the sector. Tarek Iskander, artistic director of London’s Battersea Arts Centre since 2019, drew up a list of 33 reasons why running a theatre is now so hard. One of them was: “Having to say no to more and more wonderful things due to constrained resources, so feeling like the worst possible ‘gatekeeper’.”
Last week, creative director Suba Das joined the departures, unexpectedly announcing he was leaving Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse after just over a year, despite the theatre regaining a regular grant.
Iskander blamed the wider crisis on “chronic staff shortages”, “a lack of capital investment” and a “poorly executed” Arts Council of England funding round for its National Portfolio theatres – ones that get a regular annual grant.
The “churn” in the theatre world, as a wave of artistic directors quit, is now at unprecedented levels, it is claimed. This month, Will Gompertz announced that he was to quit as artistic director at the Barbican after two years, and applications for the same role at the National Theatre are now closed following the decision of Rufus Norris to step down in June.
Top roles have been advertised recently at the Donmar Warehouse, Royal Court, Brixton House and Unicorn theatres in London, as well as the Royal Exchange in Manchester, Bristol Old Vic, the Watford Palace, the Royal and Derngate in Northampton, Chichester theatre, Perth theatre, and Exeter Northcott, as well as at Kakilang, the south-east and east Asian performance group.
In December, Hampstead theatre in London was hit by a 100% funding cut. Others to suffer this fate included the Donmar, the Barbican and the Gate in Camden. Hampstead’s artistic director, Roxana Silbert, appointed in 2018, resigned following the decision by Arts Council England (ACE) not to renew its £766,455 annual grant.
Iskander’s list of off-putting factors includes “a corrosive government-led London vs Anti-London narrative that has divided our sector” and “disproportionate spending on place-making initiatives that are great in terms of ticking boxes … but do little to develop infrastructure or do the hard, long-term grassroots work”.
Such a widespread changing of the guard may, however, be due partly to the effects of the pandemic and to the fact that 10 years is a normal tenure in a high-profile theatre job. Many of those leaving had completed a similar term. An ACE spokesperson said: “Some theatres are feeling the strain, and the Arts Council will continue to do all it can to support them and make the case for future investment, so the UK can continue to provide world-class ambitious productions.”
Actor David Tennant last week attacked the “ludicrous” cost of some tickets for London shows. Speaking on a Radio Times podcast, he said he worried that high West End seat prices were “strangling the next generation of an audience coming through”. He added that it was hard for theatres to reduce ticket prices, as grants shrink and inflation goes up.
Claire Walker, co-chief executive of the Society for London Theatre, has since argued that average ticket prices have decreased when adjusted for inflation. She said: “Theatres are grappling with costs, and there has never been a more financially uncertain time to put on a show.” adding that the average West End ticket last year cost £54.38, according to Society for London Theatre data.
In spring 2021, Iskander introduced pay-what-you-can entry to Battersea Arts Centre. Last week, he said the joint impact of austerity, inflation and grant cuts had increased the need for redundancies and bemoaned the “horrible emotional toll” of causing suffering to cherished colleagues.
