Forty Years On: The Funding Conundrum at The Finborough
- Forty Years On:The Funding Conundrum at The Finborough
London's Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat fringe venue with a noted history of attracting emerging playwrights such as James Graham, Mark Ravenhill, and Laura Wade, who have progressed to become voices of national and international standing. By identifying, fostering, and providing a first platform for playwrights of promise, the Finborough's importance within the ecology of contemporary London theatre has frequently and consistently been recognized and lauded by leading industry figures in the UK.1
Founded in 1980, the Finborough is a diminutive playhouse which presents plays, old and new, and very occasionally musical theatre. Its aim is to equally divide its focus between thought-provoking text-based new writing and the rediscovery of neglected works from the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The theatre boasts an impressive track record of accomplishment and achievement in this area, yet the Finborough is not a National Portfolio Organization (an organization in receipt of public funding, referred to as an NPO). As such, the theatre has had to operate with little or no funding for the entirety of its history.2
The Finborough has now seen forty years in continuous operation, the recent Covid-19 lockdown notwithstanding.3 The theatre is a multiaward winning and important London venue. Regular commentary from prominent UK theatre industry members illustrates this fact and demonstrates that the Finborough is widely recognized as an important venue on the theatrical landscape. It is broadly considered to "punch above its weight."4 In 2010, referring to the upcoming Finborough's Vibrant Festival featuring new plays to mark its thirtieth anniversary (among them James Graham's The Man), the then Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner [End Page 179] commented: "The Finborough's achievement is a mighty one, doing more for new writing on little or no money than some other, better-funded theatres."5 Gardner has also subsequently hailed the canny curation of the theatre's artistic directorship.6
The theatre's reputation is particularly impressive for its size, a small black-box space with maximum audience capacity of fifty people; as well as its location, a cozy above-a-pub space in West Brompton, situated some four miles from the UK's traditional theatre heartland in the West End. Indeed, a remarkable proportion of Finborough shows have transferred to the West End and Broadway, or they have subsequently toured the Anglophone world: the UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, and Australia.7 Modern classics that were fostered and received their premiere at the Finborough before achieving international success include Ravenhill's Shopping and F***king (1996), Anthony Neilson's Penetrator (1993), Laura Wade's Young Emma (2003), Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman (1995), and Dawn King's Foxfinder (2012).
The Finborough's determination to maintain high standards and foster bold, often provocative, truant, and oppositional theatre—a luxury normally reserved for publicly funded theatres in London such as the Royal National Theatre or the Royal Court Theatre—is one of the main reasons for its strong reputation among critics and playwrights alike. Funded venues can financially afford a "right to fail" policy for a percentage of their productions at least.8 The Finborough, by contrast, holds its own in this territory despite its lack of public money, occasionally eschewing a need for financial success in pursuit of advancing the theatre's journey. And this approach, however difficult it can be, has proven fruitful. The theatre's reputation continues to attract leading critics to its shows, with almost every production reviewed in the UK's national press. And this critical attention has enabled the theatre to consistently draw significant emerging talent. Former protégées of the Finborough who have progressed to become leading voices in British theatre today include Wade, Naomi Wallace, Mike Bartlett, Claire Dowie, David Eldridge, James Graham, Nicholas de Jongh, Peter Oswald, Nick Payne, Ravenhill, Alexandra Wood, and Anders Lustgarten.
I interviewed Neil McPherson, the theatre's artistic director since 1999, and asked him about the challenge of operating such a significant [End Page 180] theatre on a small budget. I also elicited his thoughts on the controversy surrounding the theatre's reputation...
