David Tennant Says We Must Protect Our Creative Arts From Cuts

David Tennant has been talking of the importance in funding for arts in Britain and says that they must be protected from Goverment cuts to ensure we continue to have“the best theatre in the world”.

Attending last night's What's On Stage Awards at the Prince Of Wales Theatre in London, David, who was awarded with The Best Actor In A Play title for his portrayal of Richard II in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production, used his acceptance speech to get his message across.

He said: “British theatre has this unerring knack of reinventing and reinvigorating itself and staying the best theatre in the world year after year after year.

“We are rightly proud of all our creative arts but we have to protect them. I think it’s worth saying in an election year, if I may: any pound spent on the creative industries is not an expense, it’s an investment.

“The arts bring in so much more money to this economy than they take out. Just saying.”

Backstage at the event David elaborated further on the topic, telling the press:

“It’s just obvious, isn’t it? All the creative industries feed into each other and they need to be protected, and that’s as important in this theatre as it is in Mull and Hull and Glasgow and Sheffield and Manchester.

“What happens in theatre feeds into television and it feeds into film and that’s where writers come from, that’s where directors come from, that’s where actors come from.

“And if you cut one of them off, the whole industry crumbles. That’s why, ultimately, economically it makes sense as well as artistically and emotionally.”

It was a highly successful year for Shakespearean productions, with Coriolanus also winning big at the event.  David spoke about why he thinks that the Bard's work still resonates with a modern West End audience saying:

“It’s the language that sings down the centuries and clearly it’s still speaking to people today… We’re so lucky that we grow up with English as a first language because we get to experience that raw, as it were.”

And we can expect to see David treading the boards in another Shakespearean part as there are plenty more roles that he's keen to take on:

 “Well, Iago is quite appealing, isn’t it? Malvolio as well. And one of the joys is that [the characters] stretch into middle age and old age, so you can just keep trotting them out – hopefully, if people keep asking me.”

Source: The Telegraph