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President's Address to the AGM 2011- Continued 1

These caricatures are, of course, just that - ignorant caricatures, but they probably represent the quietly held views of a worrying number of politicians and some lazy journalists. The reality is quite different from the cartoon.

The two sectors are working parts of the same highly effective world class engine. The commercials do, indeed, demonstrate daily that they can provide a huge variety of theatre entertainment of the highest quality but they are not, in their essential nature, experimenters, pushing forward the boundaries of theatre art. Even the most modest of the non-commercials is, by comparison, a teaching hospital where actors, directors, designers and technicians perfect their skills. This is where new talents and new ideas emerge. Here, the occasional failure is accepted as part of the price of progress, while a brilliant success, like say 'Les Miserables' will move across into the commercial sector to the considerable advantage of all concerned (the Royal Shakespeare Company still benefits from this one).

You know all this, but it is worth repeating because all recipients of public money are under attack and it is a great mistake even to appear to apologise for one of Britain's most successful industries and one of our most productive export industries. In 2010, income from just one source - foreign tourists attracted to Britain as the world's great theatre centre - was reckoned to have boosted the national economy by 2.8 billion pounds. Every public penny invested in theatre is paid back many, many times over. So let's not be shy about justifying the tiny bit of financial support we get. This goose of ours is laying golden eggs for Britain.

A further thought: We get used to hearing theatre described as an elite pastime for the middle class over-fifties. Well, it didn't look like that when I went to see 'Wicked', near the beginning of a run that now threatens to go on for ever, but even if there is an atom of truth in the criticism I'd like to draw attention to a remarkable recent event at Wyndham's Theatre. Wyndham's is one of those Matcham era theatres (it's actually by Sprague) which has a long iron queue canopy. I can just remember when such canopies and their neat lines of queue stools were in daily use, but I doubt whether this one has ever served its original purpose at any time during the last sixty years or more.

But in the last week or so an astonishing number of young people have been queueing to enter a daily lottery for the allocation of tickets to see David Tennant in 'Much Ado About Nothing'. . .

Now some may dismiss this as just the latest example of pop idol worship, but think about it. Young people? Queueing? To enter a lottery? For the chance of getting into a theatre? To see a Shakespeare play?

Terrific! I never thought I'd live to see it happen!

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