So, culture secretary Andy Burnham has unveiled a new scheme in which the government is looking to give away one million free theatre tickets to people under the age of 26.
The plan has been developed out of a nugget of an idea suggested by Brian McMaster in his review into excellence in the arts, in which he put forward the proposal of an annual free week when people would get to go to the theatre gratis.
That embryonic musing has now been polished into something more manageable and focussed. Under McMaster’s initial idea there was nothing to stop regular theatregoers from simply nabbing all the free seats, whereas under the new plan there is at least the promise that it will be targeted at an age group which is generally under-represented in theatres.
Over on the Guardian’s Blog, Lyn Gardner raises some interesting questions about whether free theatre seats alone will be enough to convince this age group to go to the theatre.
But, it strikes me that there are a couple of other issues which also need to be addressed.
Namely, Why has this announcement been made during the Labour Party Conference? and Do the figures add up?
First, the cash. Burnham has earmarked a fund of £2.5 million, which he claims will generate one million free tickets. Even when one bears in mind that it’s not a simple case of equating this to £2.50 per ticket (some theatres already have subsidised youth ticketing schemes and most have empty seats from which they aren’t making money), Burnham’s figure seems a tad optimistic. Certainly no-one has been very clear about where this number is coming from.
Arts Council England - whose job it is, of course, to operate the scheme - are being rather more realistic than Burnham and saying that this figure is “aspirational” and won’t be achieved alone through the ticket offer, but with the help of a number of other concurrent schemes. Either way, the proof will be in the pudding.
Secondly, the timing. Why at the party conference? This idea came out of an independent report, it’s not part of Labour’s manifesto and free theatre tickets for youngsters should not be a party political issue. Still, clearly, someone wanted a good news story.
It would appear to be no coincidence that many of the final details of this scheme are still missing. Detailed criteria as to how theatres can qualify for the project are still being worked out and nobody is saying whether the commercial sector will be completely excluded from the party.
In other words, this is - on the face of it - an essentially good (maybe great?) idea, which has still yet to be worked out completely.
Would it be too much of a jump to come to the conclusion that the announcement has been rushed forward to coincide with the Labour Party Conference? And if that’s the case, it raises the question of which of the government’s other recent initiatives have been pushed through, half-baked?
What do you think?
Could this scheme make a lasting impact in developing new audiences for theatre? Or will £2.5 million spread over two years and 95 theatres prove a drop in the ocean?
And should the government have chosen to use the Labour Party Conference to announce such a scheme?
How about free tickets for oldsters?? That would fill the theatres and get a well behaved audience to boot.