It is hard to do justice to the magic of the Watermill Theatre. I can think of no other theatre in the country that combines its idyllic rural loveliness with the verve and calibre of its creative offering.
This is what made the Arts Councils’ decision to withdraw its funding at the end of last year so mystifying. In its correspondence on the matter, the Arts Council seemed to suggest that the Watermill had met every one of its qualifying criteria (as it had in every previous year) but, for reasons unknown, had not been selected for a funding award for 2023-2026. In fact, it took a considerable amount of pressure to get them to produce any written reasons for their decision at all and when these eventually came, only suggested vaguely that the Watermill “lacked ambition”.
Sadly, the Watermill is not the only arts organisation that has suffered in this way. When I spoke on the subject in a recent Parliamentary debate, I was struck by the number of MPs from across the House who described a lack transparency, accountability and consultation in the decision-making process. Some of our greatest artistic institutions had lost out without any impact assessment having been conducted. The English National Opera for example, was on the brink of closing its doors altogether, before a last-minute turnaround by the Arts Council last month.
There is some suggestion that this is because the Arts Council wishes to reallocate money from the south to other parts of the country. I have no objection in principle to the idea of greater investment around the country, but I have always taken the view that this should not be at the expense of vital existing venues and certainly not through overnight cuts.
The value in the Watermill’s offering is that it is so much more than a regional repertory theatre. It creates its own productions and sends them touring around the country. For example, its recent production of “Spiked” started in Bagnor and went on to Blackpool, Cardiff, Glasgow and Darlington where it was seen by over 80,000 people. It is also an artery theatre through which West End productions flow and continue onto international destinations including Broadway. It also takes its commitment to outreach and diversity seriously. The theatre reaches 20,000 people annually through its community engagement programmes which include children with autism, deafness and other special educational needs.
I know that the Arts Council has laudable ambitions at its heart. Its 10-year “Let’s Create” strategy illustrates how much it wants the arts to be accessible to everyone. My point is simply that the Watermill is an exemplar of these values. Just as it was willing to revisit its decision for the ENO, I am calling on the Arts Council to reverse its decision on the Watermill in recognition of its role as one of the finest theatres in the south of England.