News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1248: 25 January 2026
Editorial
This has been a week of what some news organisations may refer to as ‘drama’, though it has nothing to do with theatre, in the constituency where I live over an upcoming by-election. However, the MP for Wigan, on the opposite side of Manchester to me, Lisa Nandy, who is also Culture Secretary, has announced a £1.5 billion funding package for the cultural sector, as Philip Fisher reports.
It’s a big number, but theatres will not be getting a very large slice of this particular pie. This is funding is over five years, and more than half is set to go to museums rather than the arts. National Portfolio Organisations—NPOs, or organisations that receive regular revenue funding from Arts Council England—will get an additional £80 million over four years, which would be peanuts to most government departments but to theatres, used to existing on very tight financial margins, it will be a welcome uplift, in fact representing a 5% increase next year.
There is also £425 million set aside for capital projects, from which theatres get to benefit. Although I do remember when National Lottery funding began in the 1990s, it was only available for capital projects and not for regular funding, and there were worries that there would be a lot of lovely new and refurbished theatre buildings but no money to create productions to go in them.
I received my e-ticket for a play I’m reviewing soon at a theatre that up to now has provided real tickets, at least to reviewers. However, not any longer.
I know I’ve complained about e-tickets and e-programmes before in this newsletter. While there are clearly some advantages, the main one I suspect being a cost saving to the theatres, in this ephemeral art form, where everything passes in an evening and lives on only in the memory, a ticket and a programme have provided something tangible and lasting to mark the event, especially if it turns out to be a particularly significant or memorable one.
The e-mail with my e-ticket told me I didn’t need to print the ticket out as I can show it on my phone. This presumes that I have a smartphone, and, believe it or not, not everyone does, even in 2026—in fact, half of the BTG reviewers who regularly visit this theatre do not (okay, there are only two of us so it isn’t really a representative sample, but the point is still valid). It also presumes that I have a printer, whereas printer ownership has dropped dramatically over the last few years.
The use of ‘paperless tickets’ is given as “for environmental purposes”—I assume it means to reduce impact on the natural environment, but now that paper is much more often recycled or from managed sources and the environmental impact of those huge data centres that store everything on our mobile devices is coming under increasing scrutiny, maybe that argument doesn’t hold up as well as it did twenty years ago.
Another theatre a year or two ago told me they weren’t producing programmes any more to reduce their printing and paper usage. That was just after I was handed a printed copy of a press release I’d already had by e-mail in a cardboard folder.
As it happens, I do have a smartphone—and a printer—so none of this is a problem to me, just a minor annoyance. I’m sure, unlike banks that have closed most of their local branches and made it difficult to speak to a human in those that remain, this theatre will be helpful and friendly towards those who can’t or don’t want to embrace everything that modern technology is able to offer.
Director Matthew Xia has praised the “talented, courageous and empathetic” group of artists joining him for a new portrayal of Andrea Levy’s novel Small Island.
Director Matthew Xia has praised the “talented, courageous and empathetic” group of artists joining him for a new portrayal of Andrea Levy’s novel Small Island.
My Brother’s A Genius (Sheffield Theatres, Theatre Centre and National Youth Theatre) - The Crucible / Lyceum Theatre / Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield, –
Nutcracker In Havana (Norwich Theatre and Valid Productions) - Grand Opera House York, York, –
To Kill a Mockingbird (Jonathan Church Theatre Productions) - The Crucible / Lyceum Theatre / Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield, –
FRIENDS! The Musical Parody (Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale and Oskar Eiriksson in association with The Barn Theatre Cirencester) - The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, –
Sherlock Holmes and the Hunt for Moriarty (Blackeyed Theatre In association with Theatre Royal Winchester and South Hill Park) - Mayflower Studios (MAST), Southampton, –
Smalltown Boy (The Project People) - Bristol Old Vic, Bristol, –
Death on the Nile (Fiery Angel) - Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester, –
Dear England (National Theatre) - New Theatre Oxford, Oxford, –
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (Stage Entertainment, Joop van den Ende and Tali Pelman, in association with Tina Turner) - Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes, –
