Can theatre find any silver linings in Brexit?

In April, The Stage published a comprehensive Long Read investigating the effects that Brexit was having on the UK’s performing arts industry.

The impacts it identified were many and varied, but – for the time being at least – universally negative: from new complex, costly and cumbersome visa requirements for theatre workers, to productions located in the EU cutting back on the employment of UK artists, to challenges transporting sets across borders due to cabotage arrangements.

These challenges are all damaging to the individuals and companies directly affected and to the sector at large, but they were all essentially predictable problems, directly related to one of the principal aims of Brexit: restricting freedom of movement between the UK and EU.

None of those difficulties has gone away and we are now beginning to see them being supplemented by less predictable obstacles, as the indirect impacts of exiting the EU start to percolate through to the surface. The latest for our sector is the nationwide shortage of building materials that is having a serious knock-on effect on theatre production costs.

Obviously, this issue is not solely related to Brexit – the pandemic has played at least as significant a role – but like delays in meat-processing and staff shortages in hospitality venues, it has been significantly exacerbated by our decision to leave the EU.

Brexit has happened whether we like it or not and change in response to it doesn’t have to be bad

As with those challenges faced by other industries, many of the indirect impacts of Brexit were initially obscured from view due to the unexpected shutting down of international borders by the Covid pandemic. Now, as Covid restrictions are eased, Brexit’s role is starting to become more apparent.

There will be more Brexit-related hurdles for theatre. The next significant hurdle, I would suggest, is likely to be related to audiences, especially those in the West End.

As tourism starts up again, will European theatregoers return in similar numbers to pre-pandemic? Will the extra cost and difficulty of coming to the UK dissuade some from visiting, for example, London on a city break?

But, on the flip side, could the extra cost and expense for UK tourists visiting EU destinations convince more of them to holiday internally or devote more of their leisure spend on activities such as theatregoing?

With most of the obvious effects of Brexit being negative for the performing arts, we will have to hunt hard for – and then make the most of – silver linings such as these.

Like the pandemic, Brexit has happened whether we like it or not and change in response to it doesn’t have to be bad. For example, when it comes to the issue of rising costs for set-building materials, could this short-term challenge end up being a blessing in disguise if it helps to accelerate theatre’s adoption of more sustainable practices? If it does, that will be good news for pretty much everyone – except perhaps timber suppliers.