Coronavirus: Birmingham theatres hope to benefit from government cash

Birmingham Rep's Sean Foley said it was too early to tell if jobs could be saved

More than £1.5bn of support for arts venues in the UK will stop the industry "sliding into the sea", the boss of Birmingham's Rep theatre has said.

The government money will help secure the future of venues, but it was too early to tell if it would save jobs, Artistic Director Sean Foley said.

Without support, the city's Hippodrome theatre would close in February, chief executive Fiona Allan said on Monday.

The emergency support package will include grants and loans.

Mr Foley said it was unclear how much the Rep would get, but described the news as "marvellous".

"It's fantastic. What it means is we won't have an industry literally sliding into the sea over the next couple of months," he said.

The theatre has lost 80% of its income due to the pandemic after generating £11m through its activities in the last financial year.

Fiona Allen said the package for the arts sector as a whole was "very generous"

Ms Allen said she welcomed the "generous" award for the sector, but said the Hippodrome could not guarantee some of its 130 permanent staff and 250 casual workers would not lose their jobs.

"I think there is a future in sight now... it is truly at the upper limits of what we thought could be coming from government," she said.

"It's very, very generous indeed."

She said the government now needed to say when venues can reopen.

"The reason there is such a wonderfully generous amount of money on the table is because we're going to be told there is no date guidance. I'm anticipating this means no Christmas for theatres."

John Partridge said The Attic Theatre was relying on donations

She added: "We would have gone out of business by February.

"Looking at the numbers, like so many others we're just spending money and not making any. We're just spending those reserves, so late winter or spring we would have run out of money."

Last month, the theatre said about 60 members could be made redundant in an attempt to save the venue.

John Partridge from The Attic in Stratford-upon-Avon said it was currently relying on donations. The theatre is running a Go Fund Me page to help keep it running.

"People are still giving generously but times are tough for everyone... if the money doesn't come in it's going to be very tough to keep open."

The £1.15bn support pot for cultural organisations in England is made up of £880m in grants and £270m of repayable loans.

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