Dennis Kelly on subsidy
Saturday 15th February 2014
Quote of the day: “But no company can guarantee a show like Matilda is going to be a success — believe me, I was there and at times we thought it was going to be a disaster. It’s luck, judgment, trusting your gut and risk — the kind of risk that subsidised theatre is good at and the kind of risk that no sane person in the commercial sector would take. If we hack away at the funding for that risk we will surely hack away at the results. Without investing in a new generation of plays and playwrights there will be no work like those mentioned above. And that will be an indicator of something far worse: that up and down the country hundreds of other plays that touch people’s lives, that are just as good and important but never make it into the West End — well, they will also have disappeared and this country will have lost something it’s brilliant at doing.” (Dennis Kelly)
