Political theatre in London has had more than its share of problems and the latest venue at risk is The Tricycle theatre in north London, which has staged a series of productions based on recreations of seismic political events such as the Scott inquiry, the Nuremberg trials, the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

The Tricycle’s misfortunes follow hard on the heels of the collapse of several other radical theatres. The 7:84 theatre company in Edinburgh closed in January after funding problems, and the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow was said to be in discussions with its local authority and could be facing cuts in a “week of bad news” for arts organisations in Glasgow.

Some of Britain’s leading artists, including Paula Rego and Antony Gormley, said this weekend that they intend to help save The Tricycle by donating works for auction later this month.

“It is very important to have political theatre,” said Gormley, “where recent events, or attitudes to events, are reflected on.”

Rego added: “English theatre is the greatest in the world and the plays in smaller theatres are often the ones that the larger venues shy away from.”

Other famous names to donate include the actor Sir Antony Sher, the illustrator Ralph Steadman, the artist Maggi Hambling and Sir Peter Blake, who designed The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album cover.

The theatre, which has also produced acclaimed plays about Guantanamo Bay, Deepcut – the Army barracks where four soldiers died of gunshot wounds – and the Hutton inquiry, needs £2.75m a year to stay afloat, only a third of which comes from ticket sales.

The Tricycle’s artistic director, Nicolas Kent, said that, while Tricycle productions have transferred not only to the West End but to other stages around the world, and it has hosted world-renowned actors such as Vanessa Redgrave, audiences have preferred more light-hearted work during the recession.

“The pressure on us because of the recession is twofold,” Kent said. “The cash we raise from charitable trusts has gone down enormously, and there has been less money coming in from individuals.

“Last autumn people were worried and tended not to spend money on going to the theatre, particularly serious theatre. They were opting for more light-hearted shows. We put on Deepcut and got great reviews but it did not do as well as we hoped at the box office.

“Musicals have been doing stormingly well, but all serious theatres rely on donations and they have been drying up.”

As if to hammer home the point, the Hackney Empire, which also has a strong political track record, has announced it will close early in the new year for nine months amid financial difficulties.

West End Live 2009 Saturday 20th June

11.05 Hairspray

11.15 Been So Long

11.30 Wicked

11.40 Dirty Dancing

11.55 The King and I

12.05 Oliver!

12.15 Sister Act

12.25 We Will Rock You

12.45 Priscilla Queen of the Desert

12.50 Chicago

13.10 Jersey Boys

13.30 Thriller Live

13.50 Forbidden Broadway

14.05 The Sylvia Young Theatre School

14.25 The South Bank Centre presents ‘Tom Tom Crew’

14.45 Little Big Club

15.10 So Jest End

15.25 Avenue Q

15.45 Zanna Don’t

16.05 The London Gay Men’s Chorus

16.30 Too Close to the Sun

16.50 Faithless Bitches

17.05 The KB Fusionnaires

17.45 La Cage Aux Folles

17.55 Stomp

West End Live Sunday 21st June

12.00 Stomp

12.15 Little Big Club

12.35 West End Kids

12.55 Jersey Boys

13.15 Thriller Live

13.35 Noise Ensemble

13.55 Zanna Don’t

14.10 Honk!

14.20 SOLT – Competition

14.25 Royal Albert Hall presents ‘The Red Stripe Band’

15.05 Chinatown Arts Space Presents ‘TheBathroomGirl’

15.25 Bar Rumba presents ‘Salsateca’

15.40 Players Theatre presents ‘Victorian Music Hall’

15.55 National Youth Music Theatre

16.10 Lord Mayor of Westminster’s West End LIVE presentations

16.20 Octave8 presents ‘Yot.K’

16.50 Dover Street Restaurant and Jazz Bar presents ‘The Blues Engineers’

17.25 Ain’t Nothin But Blues Bar present the ‘West Western Bluesonics’

• London Breaks
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Summer theatre breaks can be the best kind of summer holiday in the UK for theatre lovers. You don’t have to battle with the weather and discomfort in some dismal seaside resort nor stress about lost baggage, cancelled flights and foreign prices.

London theatreland has the great advantage of being familiar but exciting. Everything you could possibly need is within one or two square miles. And that includes a fantastic riverside and some beautiful green parks. But it’s the unbelievable variety of great shows on offer all in one city that really does it. So you can book a theatre break to one show that you’ve always wanted to see but couldn’t get decent tickets for any other way, and then stay on at the same hotel for a couple of extra nights and get day tickets for one or two other less usual shows all in the same break. Then there are all the other London attractions as well – the museums, art galleries, fabulous world cuisine restaurants, night clubs, sights and experiences all over the huge rambling hive of humanity that is London.

Enjoy is a play by Alan Bennett, one of theatre’s greatest observers of the English way of life.

Written in 1980, it’s set in his home town of Leeds where an ageing couple are living in the city’s last back-to-back. With the demolition of the area in progress, Wilf and Connie are soon to be re-housed in a brand new maisonette with a waste disposal unit and non-slip vinyl flooring! When a sociologist comes to observe them in their daily life, normality takes a decidedly atypical turn…

With its cast of fifteen extraordinary characters and a stunning visual denouement, Enjoy is an absolute theatrical treat.

Alan Bennett has been a household name for more than forty years. His numerous plays include The History Boys, one of the biggest theatrical sensations of recent years, Habeas Corpus, Forty Years On, Single Spies, The Madness of George III, Talking Heads and The Lady in the Van.

Theatre breaks in London are going to feature strongly in 2009, what with the pound falling against the Euro and everybody needing a bit of cheering up. The choice of West End musicals and plays is as good as ever and there are always a few new ones I’d love to go and see. Carousel has started already, now there’s a revival from way back! But a good one for theatre breaks because you know you’re going to have a great time with all those fabulous songs. I usually find the tunes still buzzing around my head when I get back to the hotel and especially the morning after over breakfast. Don;t tell anyone, but that’s one of my favourite parts of a theatre break really, especially after staying up at the hotel bar for a few short ones late into the night.

London Theatre breaks by train

After breakfast I might spend the day in London and maybe even book up for another show making it a two night theatre break, but eventually it’s time to check out and take the train home. I always travel by train to London, there’s just no other way that’s convenient for the theatre trips I enjoy, but I admit it takes a bit of an effort for me to get booked up all in advance because I’m a bit of a spontaneous person really. That doesn’t work out so well financially so I just have to get my self organised and plan the dates well ahead to take advantage of the bargain theatre breaks packages. A car is really no use in central London what with the total lack of parking, congestion charge and crazy driving.

Top tips for 2009 Theatre breaks

These are the shows I’ll be choosing from for 2009 theatre breaks, either because I’ll need to be able to talk about them or else they are just my favourites.

Billy Elliot – Just opened in Broadway so worth seeing again in London if you folow my logic…

Sister Act – Whoopi Goldberg brings her stage adaptation of the Sister Act film to London first. Bound to be popular for London theatre breaks from May 2009 onwards

Priscilla – Queen of the Desert. A mature show fresh from Melbourne – can’t fail to win over London theatre audiences.

Les Miserables – An old favourite but I have a special occasion coming up and nothing can beat Les Miz for a sense of occasion.

Theatre Breaks as gifts

I can’t really afford to do this but if I could, I would definitely send a copy of the confirmation email to a few selected loved ones so that they can have the fantastic surprise of going on a pre-booked theatre break to London with everything all paid and organised (with me). Happy New Year!

with reviews, cast changes and news, and the best special offers from not just one but several different agencies so the truly  best theatre breaks deals are featured whoever they’re from.

Tags: theatrebreaks, London theatre breaks