Big drop in plays staged by theatres over past decade

The number of plays and musical works organized by the main subsidized theaters of the United Kingdom last year decreased almost a third compared to 10 years before, suggests BBC Research.

In 2024, the 40 best financed theater companies that make their own productions, ranging from the National Theater to Colchester Mercury, opened 229 original productions, compared to 332 in 2014, a 31%drop.

Fund cuts and increased costs took much of guilt, and the executive director of the National Theater, Kate Varah, he said recently. In “Breaking Point”.

But some places said that the shows they do in the stage are on a larger scale that a decade ago, with the aim of running for a longer time on the tour or in the West End.

Last week, actress Lesley Manville warned that the new talent had “less opportunity” to develop than in the 1970s.

“It will be a decreasing discipline, because there is not always the amount of scenic work available for them to go and do,” said BBC Radio 4 After extraction, an Olivier award.

The executive director and artistic director of Leeds Playhouse, James Bringing, said the place had reduced his number of local shows from 12 to eight per year.

“That decision to hire has been forced theaters because it is very exensive and more and more, to do work,” he told BBC News.

“We love doing a job. Therefore, it is a heartbreaking that the amount of work it can do is reduced, and is reducing pipe opportunities for artists at the beginning of their careers.”

The British theater has “a serious problem” with the reduction of opportunities, added Bringing, who is about to move from Leeds Playhouse to direct the Lyceum Edinburgh.

Many artists and crew begin their careers in theaters before working on television and film, artistic education consultant and Theater blogger Said Carl Woodward.

“Many Netflix stars and many of those people we see in dramas such as Mr. Bates vs the post office and adolescence cut their teeth in regional theaters.

“And if those opportunities are no longer there, then their paths do not exist. And that is a national scandal, I think.”

The financial pressures of the theater industry have had an impact on the workforce, with “low chronic salary, labor insecurity, poor work balance/life,” he added.

Many places said they now co -produce more shows with other theaters or commercial operators to spread costs and risks. That also means that these productions can be on a larger scale.

“Some individual productions that are made with the commercial sector are a lot, much larger than anything we use,” said Birmingham Executive Rep. Rachael Thomas.

“So, for us, yes, there are fewer productions, but we are spending more because the productions we are making are much larger than they used to be.”

However, the representative has lost all its annual funds of the local council, once it is worth more than 1 million a year, and the closest shows have often pressed on the legs, said Thomas.

“I suppose that the subsidy allows you to run the risk of the productions that will never recover what they have cost, and that they will be the closest productions.”

In 1995, The Rep’s Studio Theater organized East’s premiere is this, four years before he became a successful British film. He could not afford to make a work of that scale in his study today.

“I can’t see a world in which we could now launch a work that has a nine or 10 cast size in our study space of 133 places now as a new work,” Thomas said.

“For our model, and I would say that for the fixed majority of regional theaters, that is almost impossible.”

The artistic director of Salisbury Playhouse, Gareth Machin, said that the audience’s tastes also changed, which means that it is more difficult to put in “serious drama”, especially outside London.

“When money is tight, people because a good night and they don’t want to take risks,” he said.

“They probably do not come out as they were, so when they leave they do not do it because to risk something, I am not sure to be entertaining and a fun experience.

“So there is less misery and risk.”

The executive director of Nottingham Playhouse and the joint joint president of the United Kingdom Theater, Stephanie Sirr, said she did not recognize the image of a fall in the productions, noting that “fluctuates from year to year.”

“I think it’s more difficult to produce these days,” he continued.

“The costs have increased exponents. Things like energy costs really affect it if you are building landscapes all day, or if you are running theater lanterns all night.”

However, making more co -productions is something positive in most senses, and it has meant that “we have really been able to increase the scale of the work we produce,” he said, with the production of Nottingham of Dear Hansen now in an important tour of the United Kingdom.

A handful of places organized more original shows in 2024 than in 2014. They include Leicester Curve, which focuses on making musicals in collaboration with commercial producers, which can go to the road.

Curve has doubled its box office receipts in the last decade.

“By sharing resources and risks, we can, by default, do more work and create and present more work,” said executive president Chris Stafford.

“We are doing more with less in terms of public investment,” he continued, but said that the biggest challenge for many theaters would be to provide essential repairs and improvements in the coming years.

The annual funds of the artistic councils in England, Wales and Ireland of the North and the Scottish equivalent have been stagnant during the last 10 years, while inflation has increased sharply, and many places have reduced their subsidies of the local council. Many are also recovering from the consequences of pandemic.

Last year, A survey For the group, independent workers make the theater work “a workforce that is at the point of rupture”.

The interpreter and spokesman of the Paul Carey Jones group said that the BBC research “would not surprise for most theater independent workers in the United Kingdom, who have the legs with low salary rates, professional precariousness and vulnerability, lack of work of Yarinty.

“It shows the need for government action in terms of financing for the arts, but also of the theater industry to support its independent workforce, in which it depends completely.”

The investigation of this story told the original co -productions that were opened in 2014 and 2024, including revival, transfers and tours. They had to be professional theatrical productions in person, of at least one hour, and have run for at least a week. If a co -production was made to the articulation by more than one theater, it was counted as a unique production.

The investigation covered the 40 places, festivals and tours companies that produce original theater, operated in 2014 and 2024, and had the highest annual subsidies in 2024/25 of the Arts Councils of England, Wales and Ireland of the North, Creative.