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Sir Keir Starmer was called to intervene as a leading theater company warned that even performances from Shakespeare in the EU are in danger due to Brexit.
The White Horse Theatre, the largest educational touring theater in Europe, has been delivering English-language plays to schools and theaters across Europe for almost half a century – but the rising costs, logistical challenges and long-term instability caused by Brexit now threatens its future.
At its peak, the company employed 32 professional actors and performed for half a million students a year. Since Brexit, this number has dropped to less than 300,000 students a year and the company has been reduced to 24 contractors.
It could be scrapped altogether if the government does not do more to tackle Brexit red tape for theatres, the theater company has insisted.
Said Peter Griffith, founder of the White Horse Theatre The Independent “Urgent solutions are needed to ensure the survival of initiatives like ours that enrich so many lives.”
He explained that Brexit “has made it increasingly difficult to get British actors into European schools, reducing student audiences and forcing significant price increases”.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer tries to continue to reset relations with the EU after years of strained relations under successive Conservative prime ministers.
While the Prime Minister has promised to “make Brexit work” by renegotiating the deal they are about Boris Johnson and to continue closer cooperation with the EU, he gave no guarantees that he would reduce bureaucracy for artists.
Since Brexit, UK citizens can now only stay in EU countries for 90 out of every 180 days unless they apply for a temporary long-stay visa of up to six months at a time or are permanent residents.
“The dramatic drop in the number of students we can reach is a stark reminder of how much is at stake,” Mr Griffith said.
“Combined with rising costs and the risk of not reaching many schools, there is a real danger that English theater will become an art form only available to the wealthy.
He said the uncertainty and instability resulting from the UK’s exit from the European Union had made it difficult for the theater to plan ahead or commit to long-term investment in the company, “which further threatened our ability to operate sustainably”.
It comes after a report by The Society of London Theater (SOLT) and UK Theater have warned that hundreds of theaters face closure and more than 500 museums have closed since the turn of the century, revealing the true scale of the risks facing Britain’s cultural spaces.
Leaders in the sector are urgently demanding major investment from the new Labor government tackle new challenges including rising energy bills and increasing the employer’s contribution to the national insurance in the budget.
Brexit has introduced a number of bureaucratic hurdles, from obtaining work permits to managing immigration processes, which have increased the costs of recruitment and labour, Griffith said.
“To cover these higher costs, we’ve had to raise prices significantly – a trend that could continue.” However, higher prices result in fewer bookings, which in turn spreads our fixed costs over a smaller customer base.
“This creates a vicious cycle that could end up making English theater a luxury only available to wealthier schools and families, undermining our aim to make theater accessible to all.”
This was said by former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine The Independent that this case is “yet another example of the gruesome death that Brexit has injected into our economy”.
The National Theater announced in 2021 that it was postponing European tours of its internationally acclaimed productions, and actors’ union Equity released figures showing that a third of its members reported seeing advertisements for actors requiring EU passports.
A letter signed by union members including Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, published the same year, warned that Brexit posed a bigger challenge to the industry than the coronavirus pandemic, calling for new visa requirements for artists.
“For a sector deeply embedded in the international community – from theater touring and dance to film, television and advertising – which has to work quickly, flexibly and demandingly, this is a catastrophic blow and will hit those already struggling and marginalized groups the hardest,” the letter states.
The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.