Like any industry with a big power imbalance, it is the workers who suffer – all too often we accept low wages and poor conditions because it has always been this way – and I would like to see more theatre workers joining their unions. Theatre is a vocational profession, which can mean many of us simply feel grateful to even earn a living, and everyone is, to a certain degree, made to feel disposable. It felt like having the rug pulled out from under me (no pun intended). This role had meant my bills would be paid for a year. If a year-long contract suddenly disappears, it can have a huge effect. For every star earning thousands a week, there are hundreds of ensemble cast members, craftspeople and technicians earning a fraction of that.
Even though our industry raises £1.3bn a year in ticket sales alone, and is a significant contributor to the UK economy – as well as providing the incalculable joy and important conversations that a good show can inspire – theatre salaries are not high, and 70% of the workforce are self-employed contractors with little security. Actors may be the most visible side, but the pandemic has affected everyone from lighting and sound technicians to stage managers, costume designers and front-of-house staff. For many of us, this has meant disappearing incomes and a struggle to make ends meet in an industry that is known for its precariousness at the best of times. The theatre industry has suffered hugely in the last couple of years.
My initial reaction was one of shock and disbelief, made worse that by telling us in this way, the people in charge – headed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and his Really Useful Group (RUG) production company – seemed to be showing a complete lack of humanity towards their workers. My agent didn’t know anything about it either, until he checked his email and saw he’d received a message less than half an hour before – just after 6pm on the Sunday of a bank holiday weekend – to say the show was closing and I no longer had a contract.
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