The Nuffield Theatre wasn't a victim of the virus, says Will Gompertz. It went bust because Arts Council England decided to withdraw all its funding at very short notice in the middle of the lockdown.
The Nuffield Theatre in Southampton became headline news on May 6th when it filed for insolvency. The administrators blamed Covid-19 for its demise, and in so doing sent shock waves across theatreland, causing producers from London's West End to the country's regional playhouses to shudder with fear. Would they be the next victim of the pandemic? All agreed the closure was a terrible shame. But what very few knew was, it was also entirely avoidable…
Greg Palfrey is a Southampton man. He went to university in the city, then stayed in town and trained there as an auditor before deciding to specialise in insolvency… in Southampton, of course. He is still there today, more than 30 years later, heading up the Restructuring and Recovery department at Smith & Williamson, the firm of administrators overseeing the sale of the Nuffield Southampton Theatres' (NST) assets
It was he who struck a sympathetic tone for his highly regarded local theatre, saying it had: "In line with other performance venues, suddenly found itself with unprecedented pressure on cash flow in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak - a flood of refund requests and little in the way of advanced bookings." Palfrey's expert analysis of the situation was picked up by the press....Keep reading on BBC
The Nuffield Theatre in Southampton became headline news on May 6th when it filed for insolvency. The administrators blamed Covid-19 for its demise, and in so doing sent shock waves across theatreland, causing producers from London's West End to the country's regional playhouses to shudder with fear. Would they be the next victim of the pandemic? All agreed the closure was a terrible shame. But what very few knew was, it was also entirely avoidable…
Greg Palfrey is a Southampton man. He went to university in the city, then stayed in town and trained there as an auditor before deciding to specialise in insolvency… in Southampton, of course. He is still there today, more than 30 years later, heading up the Restructuring and Recovery department at Smith & Williamson, the firm of administrators overseeing the sale of the Nuffield Southampton Theatres' (NST) assets
It was he who struck a sympathetic tone for his highly regarded local theatre, saying it had: "In line with other performance venues, suddenly found itself with unprecedented pressure on cash flow in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak - a flood of refund requests and little in the way of advanced bookings." Palfrey's expert analysis of the situation was picked up by the press.... Keep reading on BBC