Defunded theatre has lost its way, says writer

Wales' national theatre has not produced enough engaging work and lost a meaningful connection with artists, a writer has said.

National Theatre Wales was told in September its annual £1.6m funding was being cut to nothing by Arts Council of Wales (ACW).

Roger Williams, among other members of the artistic community, said the theatre had "lost its way".

Lorne Campbell, the theatre's artistic director, said it puts Welsh talent first and without the funding it would not be able to continue beyond April 2024.

ACW said the theatre's application for continuining funding "did not convince".

In its early years, productions such as The Passion starring Michael Sheen, Mametz by Owen Sheers and a vibrant celebration of the work of Roald Dahl in Cardiff announced the arrival of the National Theatre Wales with a loud fanfare.

But Mr Williams, a writer and producer from Neath, told the BBC's Politics Wales the company had "lost a meaningful connection with the artistic community in Wales".

He said: “The company hasn’t been producing enough work, especially work which has been engaging with the general public.

"Unfortunately, once you start losing those relationships with your key sectors, you find yourself in trouble.

"And of course what’s happened now is they’ve lost that meaningful connections with their funders, which leads to, inevitably the closure of the operation.”

The theatre has called for "interim" funding while a review of English-language theatre is done to enable the company to honour long-standing commitments and to survive.

Mr Campbell said: “We have a huge volume of Welsh writers under commission, our casting policy is to prioritise Welsh talent."

According to Mr Campbell, it has upped the level of production and last year the company employed 645 people across Wales.

"There is more that we can do to have a better ratio. There are criticisms but I also think we’ve got a really clear direction of travel and we are doing better,” he added.

Nick Davies, theatre critic and a former Arts Council of Wales theatre portfolio officer said he was also not surprised that National Theatre Wales has lost its funding.

He said: “It’s got to the point where it would do almost anything but put on a play.

"I’ve started to realise that there seems to be a lack of confidence in actually creating real drama involving real actors, involving playwrights, and creating a piece of work."

Mr Campbell admitted some of the company's work had fallen short but said National Theatre Wales had a plan to change that, adding there was "a really exciting programme of work coming".

"We’ve had some projects which have been completely sold out, we’ve had other projects that have fallen well short of what we want to achieve."

"You try and do exciting and provocative things in exciting and new ways.

"In our last two shows, A Proper Ordinary Miracle in Wrexham was completely sold out. The Cost of Living in Swansea did much less well at box office than we wanted it to.” Mr Campbell added.

Dai Smith, former chairman of ACW, described the funding cut as “cultural vandalism”.

He said the six principles on which the ACW had decided applications for funding was “more socially and ethically driven than culturally and artistically”.

Mr Smith added: “It’s muddle headed, it’s stupid, but above all it is actually destroying what I call one of the cultural pillars of Welsh life. If it’s ailing a bit then let us get it better.

"Imagine if the Welsh Rugby Union had a string of defeats as they often do and because of those defeats we said get rid of them – it’s nonsense. ”

Mr Campbell said there had been conversations with the ACW about how National Theatre Wales could improve.

He added: “There are things, particularly around audiences where we have been rightly criticised by the Arts Council, but the general narrative has been very positive.”

However, Mr Campbell said the news of a total withdrawal of funding was as a "shock".

“If you look at the feedback we’ve had from Arts Council Wales over the last 18 months, 2 years, this is not the narrative we’ve been heading towards.

"We haven’t been put in special measures which is an intervention the Arts Council has made with a number of cultural institutions in Wales in the past when there have been problems."

Dafydd Rhys, chairman of the ACW said that National Theatre Wales' application for ongoing funding “did not convince”.

It will not comment further while the company appeals against the funding decision.