Budget crisis imperils Royal Court’s support for new writers

The literary department at the London theatre is renowned for taking risks with untried playwrights, but is now under threat

The Royal Court is known for putting the names of emerging playwrights up in lights for the first time, but is the voltage now dimming for Britain’s best known path into theatre writing? The Royal Court’s literary department is struggling to survive as the venue on London’s Sloane Square, renowned for staging risk-taking shows over 60 years, makes swingeing cuts in order to keep going.

“As a younger writer, all I wanted was to have a play on at that theatre, so I’d like other new writers to have the same chance,” said Timberlake Wertenbaker, whose acclaimed 1988 play Our Country’s Good was first staged at the Royal Court. “It would be a disaster if we lost this theatre though … so I understand that preserving the venue is the main thing.”