What Dame Janet may have meant was this. Theatre is gossip ceremonially presented. And the dramatic structures devised by the Athenians in the 5th century BC raised the form to such a pitch of excellence that the offspring cultures of Ancient Greece acquired a head start that has never been relinquished.
A harmless footnote. But her timing was unlucky. A day earlier the head of Arts Council England, Peter Bazalgette, ordered the 670 arts bodies he supports to get their skates on and make a bigger push for ‘diversity’.
He announced a ‘Creative Case for Diversity’ which ‘demands that our arts make progress in reflecting the nature of our communities,’ and ‘giving a voice to everyone’.
The Arts Council, of course, is not an artistic organisation.
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