It is a crisis that the Arts Council seems to be only belatedly recognising and for which it is partly responsible. But there are many in the sector who would question whether it has had any kind of constructive approach to touring drama in recent years. The fact that it has produced no work for a year may have played as big a part in the decline in audiences as the standstill funding that has put all these companies under intense pressure. The Arts Council, however, maintains that it is up to the board of Method and Madness to decide its future, however long that may take. But there is something even odder going on.
Diversity is the key word.
That's not a problem at a venue such as the Playhouse because of its good reputation and proximity to London. It is hard to put a Robert Holman play up against Murder at the Vicarage. It is not just companies that have been hit. As touring costs have risen, some venues, particularly in the north, are no longer able to afford decent touring productions. And so the places visited by the major companies have taken on a distinctly southern bias.