Please pardon me, all you fans of my very good friend, Jonah the owl. Don’t worry, he’ll be back with all the expressions of his shrewd and assertive mind. Last week, he gave warning of an upcoming preoccupation with matters of the flesh, but his absence this week has the more logical explanation that I have superseded him.

Three weeks ago, we ran a piece entitled “TO KILL A SWAN” in which we highlighted for the first time the eminent demise of a county town’s commercial theatre. An announcement had been made that the Swan Theatre, Worcester, was about to close because the Worcester City Council had withdrawn the subsidy that sustained its existence. This worried me, so I read the background information and made a few telephone calls which left me with an impression that there was more to tell than we had been told. It was the discovery that the theatre employed some thirty people that alerted my suspicions; I felt it was unusual in this commercial age for such a small theatre to have such a large force of paid personnel. You may recall that I expressed a hope that the amateur companies who presented their productions in the theatre should form a sort of consortium to take over the running of the Swan with minimum paid staff.

Therefore, while we can all be delighted that a rescue package (more or less along the lines I suggested) has been devised and accepted, I am not especially surprised. Many community theatres in Britain are managed very well on such sensible lines. The point can be repeated that many people who have undergone a full theatre training have been unable to secure employment in Theatre; to achieve artistic fulfilment they are obliged to find income elsewhere and work in Theatre as amateurs, happy to pass their commitment and expertise to other amateurs.

It is the dayjob that chose me, that gave me cause to be so concerned about the impending closure of a relatively small town theatre, that job has taken me to a range of overseas locations, some of which have been in countries ruled under totalitarian regimes, both left wing and right. Perhaps there are people out there who remember, in 1981, watching a production I directed, of “I Claudius”, in a hutted camp surrounded by stone walls topped by razor wire. The gate was guarded and perimeters patrolled by locals who could be trusted because they depended on a supply of alcoholic drink that was illegal outside. Outside, theatre was illegal, in fact any gathering of people was illegal. There were no Christian churches there because they were illegal too, as was any expression of Christian faith. An Indian-managed supermarket had the effrontery to decorate its interior for Christmas until the religious police arrived, tore out the bunting and banners, set fire to them outside and arrested several employees who were subjected to public beatings. I could write at length about the many mindless atrocities that take place even today in that country, in pursuit of its laws.

Because of what I saw there, and in several other countries where Theatre is illegal, I feel nervous whenever creative expression in Britain devolves away from local artists, into the control of regional or national media who could be controlled centrally. Please do not condemn me as a panic-monger when we are about to be led into war - inevitable for several decades - against a similar regime and our leaders cannot state their reasoning because to do so would be politically incorrect. If we delay any longer...
So, I have discussed with Janie, our editor, the setting up of a regular feature that lists Theatres Under Threat and gives details of their present circumstances. Perhaps we could also quote from the utterances of the local politicians and administrators who are responsible for theatre-closures, especially when they demonstrate how little they know about current standards achieved in Amateur Theatre.

There are three entries on the current Theatre Chopping List:-

1. The Swan Theatre, Worcester – not yet guaranteed of survival.

2. The Priestley Centre for the Arts, Bradford – a rescue package is being introduced,

3. The Secombe Theatre, Sutton, Surrey – scheduled for closure on 31 Jan. 2003

Each of the above theatres was funded by the donations of local people, but closure decisions have been made by local councils. Your reactions will be welcomed.

Jonah was a very experience director, teacher and writer who sadly passed away in February 2006. He was also the author of the highly successful "Playmaker - The Craft of Directing Plays (The Way I Seen It)".