The Royal Shakespeare Company should find a permanent London base or lose its £13 million a year Arts Council grant, according to London Assembly members.
Meg Hillier, chair of the Assembly’s culture committee, said: “There are other organisations clamouring for funding. The Arts Council must be seen to deal a fair hand.”
She says the RSC should be given until next autumn to comply and get no more money until it can bring a full programme of Shakespeare to London.
Since the company left its old base at the Barbican in 2001 it has depended on West End producers to help stage its Stratford-upon-Avon productions in London. A bid to use the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm was aborted because audience numbers were disappointing.
Without support from Arts Council England the RSC would probably face closure, but last night a spokesman for the Assembly’s culture committee said it does not want to see the RSC shut down. Arts Council sources say withdrawing RSC funding is “unthinkable”.
The RSC says London is a priority. A spokesman said: “We look forward to announcing where our new base will be in the New Year.”
