Curtains?

It's been a very sad day today for local theatre, as Nottingham County Council voted to cut all of its grant to the Nottingham Playhouse. This equates to about £94,000, or an average of 12p per person, per year.

What some of the councillors may not of grasped, is the huge amount of money it brings into the county through the shows it puts on and through tourism. The Playhouse also works in the community to promote the arts.

As I am off this week, I popped down this morning to join the demonstration before the council meeting took place. There must have been about 60, or 70 people there. Just ordinary theatre goers who don't want to see the quality of its shows diminished, as the theatre builds its own unique sets from scratch, rather than just using a touring companies' own. Also among the demonstrators, were the cast of the present production; The Threepenny Opera.

The press were of course there taking photos and interviewing the demonstrators. The two main directors of the Playhouse, Stephanie Sirr and Giles Croft were there to plead their case to the councillors. But sadly to no avail.

I don't know what this cut will eventually mean to the Playhouse. An undoubted rise in ticket prices for certain, and maybe not so many high quality shows. I hope it doesn't mean any redundancies, as I believe everyone who works there loves it.