More than half of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s staff are being encouraged to apply for voluntary redundancy as the struggling arts institution seeks to make “urgent” savings to plug what is thought to be a shortfall of between £5mand £6m.
The cuts are aimed at ensuring that the RSC is “best placed to be a leading global theatre company”, according to a statement that blamed the budget hole on increasing staffing costs after the pandemic, a decline in public investment and the cost of living crisis affecting takings.
In a joint statement,Andrew Leveson the RSC’s executive director, and the co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, said the organisation was experiencing “increasing demands on government spend in intensely challenging economic circumstances”.
They added: “Our structure must enable our ambition, not impede it; we must be relentless in our pursuit of working as effectively and efficiently as possible; and we need to generate additional forms of income to invest in the creation of theatre and learning through theatre, which are our founding purpose.”
Staff have been told that the shortfall figure could rise significantly unless cuts are made in the short to medium term.
Of the RSC’s 835 employees, 420 are eligible to apply for voluntary redundancy. A spokesperson confirmed a compulsory scheme would begin if insufficient people took up the voluntary offer.
As well as the redundancy scheme, the RSC is also making “operational efficiencies and [seeking to] generate additional forms of income”.
Leveson told the Stage newspaper that many organisations were struggling, but blamed the RSC’s woes on a “year-on-year gap between what it costs to run the organisation and what we are capable of generating in income to support that”.
He added that the Matilda show in the West End had been a “gift” that generated £30m for the RSC but that income had slowed down significantly in the last year, adding to the financial pressure.
The move is the largest redundancy programme at the RSC since 2020, when the company announced cuts during the pandemic.
Last week the RSC announced its full spring season for 2026. Kenneth Branagh will appear on the Stratford-upon-Avon stage for the first time in more than 30 years when he appears in the Tempest, while the Oscar winner Helen Hunt will star in a new version of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Mark Gatiss will make his RSC debut in the Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.