Sajid Javid is wrong about the Donmar – we work hard for arts inclusion
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Version 0 of 1. You learn a lot on Saturday mornings. At the weekend I woke up to a headline reporting that Sajid Javid, the secretary of state for culture, would not have visited the Donmar as a kid. I understand why he might have said that – as I'll explain – but as I read it I thought of another Saturday morning last March and wished he'd been there. On that day I spoke on a panel at the Women of the World Conference, the title of which was Art Will Change the World. Afterwards, I bumped into the deputy head of an east London comprehensive. Her school had taken part in one of the schools workshops the Donmar held around Phyllida Lloyd's all-female Julius Caesar. She told me that during that workshop she had heard one of their students, a girl, speak in public for the first time. During another of those workshops another girl stood on the Donmar stage and announced her intention to "be prime minister". Perhaps if Javid had been a pupil at that workshop his political ascent would have been even more swift. I couldn't agree more with Javid's commitment to arts inclusion. I inherited a theatre which people perceived as closed to all but its members. I thought it was too. Popular shows sell out and people who can't get in sometimes get angry, but that's why we now hold back nearly 500 cheap tickets to go on sale every week. Nearly 24,000 people have sat in £10 seats since we launched the Barclays Front Row initiative 18 months ago. More than half of those had never been to the Donmar before. A quarter of our tickets are between £5 and £15. Three months ago, we opened The Clore Studio, which is dedicated to our education work and prioritises schools with a high proportion of free school meals. It's a project that is all about inclusion and changing people's lives with great art. The problem is, it's really hard to get that idea to stick. And, to be honest, it doesn't help when the secretary of state for culture reinforces preconceptions. I met Javid last week to talk about our cheap tickets and work with schools. We spoke about how we might share more of our privileged position with regional theatres. I was heartened and inspired by his response. But exclusivity reads so much more pithily in the press, and headlines eat quotes like his for breakfast. When he singled out a theatre that has been working hard to throw open its doors, I think he shot one of his messengers. It is important to focus on what more we can do to bring everyone through our doors. When we met, I said to Javid (as I have said to Maria Miller, to Harriet Harman, and to any politician who would listen to me for five minutes) that we needed a generational change. It should be an entitlement under the national curriculum for every child to see a performance at least once a year. Until that happens the doors of public arts buildings will only be entered by those privileged with wealth, knowledge or curiosity. Over the past 12 months we have presented plays about democracy, privacy, war, gender and poverty. We have persuaded the philanthropists and corporates who make up 55% of our turnover to get behind cheap tickets and workshops with 61 schools. We've taken plays to Manchester, to America, to cinemas around the world, because they believe in our work and our mission to share our beautiful, central, London space. We still have a long way to travel with our work at the Donmar, but I will do anything I can to help Javid's mission of inclusion and change in the arts. And I sincerely hope that the next time he name-drops us, it will be for a better headline. |