Protesters Storm London's National

A group of protesters interrupted a talk back by playwright Richard Bean over objections to his new play, England People Very Nice. Two men with placards, claiming the play was racist, picketed the stage for 10 minutes before being removed by security. It is the first on stage protest in the theatre's history. Hussain Ismail, a playwright himself, led the protest on Friday claiming the play was offensive to various ethnic groups. Nicholas Hytner, the theatre's artistic director, claims the comedy "lampoons all forms of stereotyping". Read more about it here.

Advice for the Arts Council England

Since the U.S. doesn’t have anything like a Ministry of Culture or an Arts Council (and let’s not pretend the NEA comes even remotely close), I was curious to hear what advice professionals had for Liz Forgan, the incoming head of the Arts Council England. What agenda should be set forth for the coming year in arts policy, especially in the wake of the announcement that the U.K., like the U.S., is also in a recession? That’s the question Imogen Carter in the ‘Guardian’ to people like Phil Redmond, Penny Woolcock, Alex Poots, Josie Rourke, Steven Parissien, Nicholas Hytner, Michael Boyd, Ekow Eshun and Vicky Featherstone. Read what they had to say here.

Is British Theatre the Envy of the World?

Nicholas Hytner, the artistic director of London’s National Theatre, writing in the ‘Sunday Times’, explains why British theatre is the envy of the world. Which, if you ask me, is a pretty bold statement. Agree? Disagree? Also, can one be an Anglophile if one is already from England or, as he runs the National Theatre, is Hytner contractually required to be a nationalist? Read more here.