The final act

The actors of the Northumberland Theatre Company, based in Alnwick, will be used to directors' shouts of "CUT!", but today it was Arts Council England - with Cameron, Clegg and the coalition government holding a gun to their heads - who uttered the cry. NTC now face a funding shortfall of nearly £350,000 and, quite understandably, artistic director Gillian Hambleton has been left feeling distraught and betrayed: "The government has been going on about apprenticeships and giving young people a chance and that's what we've been doing. It's the Big Society, giving people opportunities, taking things to places that don't have any access. We're doing all that, we've had wonderful responses from independent Arts Council assessors, and then you still get cut. What else can you do?" With what little cash you do have, hit back by trying to instigate a revival of leftist political theatre from the 80s?

And if that wasn't bad enough for the only decent-sized town towards the north of my home county, serving an enormous if relatively sparsely populated area, the Alnwick Playhouse Trust have also been stung to the tune of £40,000. Soon the only drama to be had in the town will be what goes on in Ye Olde Tanners Arms once the doors are bolted...