Rufus Norris must get regional to be properly national - Arts funding

Arts funding - The Stage: In the exhibition at the National Theatre celebrating its 50th birthday, there’s a snatch of Yes, Prime Minster from the 1980s playing, in which the director of the National Theatre (played by John Bird) threatens the PM with embarrassing public criticism if he persists with arts council cuts.

The PM, Paul Eddington, counters with the suggestion that he could simply reduce the need to cut funding to the rest of the arts by selling the National Theatre so that the company becomes peripatetic – “truly a national theatre” – occupying different venues around the country to present its productions. There might be two or three in London, he offers. The rest of the arts sectror would love him for it. Needless to say, the NT director capitulates.