Responses to the government’s promise of £1.57bn for the arts and heritage sectors
The Guardian
The news looked so bleak on Friday I found myself in tears at the prospect of our theatres closing like a collapsing house of cards.
I have donated the cost of tickets I had bought for events that were cancelled. I have made donations to various organisations - venues and dance companies. I tweeted Oliver Dowden MP and Rishi Sunak MP, hovering between passionate activism and desperate rage at the sheer stupidity of allowing our entire culture to approach the precipice. I wrote to my MP. I listened to Boris Johnson promise some dates for the much-derided road map - a short list of destinations with no directions for how to get there - to be announced 'this week'.
I did not expect a rescue package of this scale to be announced at 10:30pm on Sunday.
I hope it makes a real difference. I hope it is fairly distributed. I hope it is enough. I hope it isn't another false promise made by a government it is almost impossible to trust.
But it is a huge relief.
However, I don't expect to find myself in a theatre again this year - and I know there will be casualties.