While Zoom calls can be trialling at the best of times, spare a thought for Adrian Vinken, the chief executive of the Theatre Royal in Plymouth. Last Monday Vinken made a call no director wants to make – informing his 240 strong staff that one third of them are at risk.
Vinken’s audience ranged from “people who’d worked for us 30 years and given us everything,” to young workers who had been appointed only recently. “It hurt like hell,” Vinken said.
As for Oliver Dowden’s cultural roadmap, entirely without target dates or promises of financial assistance, Vinken muses: “It was an entirely pointless exercise.” It seems that Dowden’s roadmap is strongly lacking in direction.
Dowden has continuously promised that a rescue package is well on its way. In an interview with the Evening Standard he promised: “I am not going to stand by and see our world-leading position in arts and culture destroyed.
“Of course I want to get the money flowing,” he continued.
A spokesperson for the culture ministry said that: “We are working with the sector to get it fully back up and running as soon as possible.” A list of questions posed by The New York Times remains unanswered.
For Vinken, government funding is long overdue. If the government fails to put their money where their mouth is, he will have to make more layoffs as early as October. Beyond then, he dreads to think.
However, he hopes intervention will come before then. “You have to have hope, don’t you?” he said. “We’re in show business here. It’s all about turning dreams into reality.”
