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The Guardian: Do corporate sponsorships compromise theatres?: The National’s new production is brought to you by Shell: an ethical minefield or much ado about nothing?

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The Guardian: Do corporate sponsorships compromise theatres?: The National’s new production is brought to you by Shell: an ethical minefield or much ado about nothing?

There are three Shell plays at the National in the pipeline. Photograph: Rengku Bahar/AFP/Getty Images

One of the highlights of the autumn season at the National Theatre looks set to be Nicholas Hytner’s new production of Much Ado About Nothing. Boasting the not inconsiderable pairing of Zoe Wanamaker and Simon Russell Beale as Beatrice and Benedick, it opens in December and will be the first of three annual productions of classic drama sponsored by Shell.

This is not the first time the theatre has gone into partnership with the oil company. Over recent years, Shell has sponsored the National’s innovative Connections programme, producing theatre for young people by leading playwrights. It was a project that, as Nicholas Hytner said, had everything: “exciting new plays, committed and inspired performers and an audience that wants to be challenged, provoked and entertained”. But it took the support of a multinational oil company to make it possible.

Not everyone is comfortable with this sort of creative relationship. The considerable investments that companies like Shell and BP make into the arts leave many people feeling uneasy; there is a feeling that it provides a convenient source of positive publicity while glossing over issues involving the companies’ environmental records. This ethical clash was particularly evident when Shell sponsored the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition at the Natural History Museum. The company’s involvement angered many environmental groups, with Friends of the Earth calling it an “act of blatant hypocrisy that undermines everything the competition stands for”.

BP’s sponsorship of the annual portrait award at the National Portrait Gallery also led to protests, with some protesters from pressure group London Rising Tide even blockading the gallery’s front entrance. But with the government making wide-ranging arts cuts, such schemes are likely to be on the rise. Sponsorship and corporate partnership are simply part of today’s arts landscape. If it brings exciting and vital work to the stage, does the source of the funding really matter?

Accenture sponsored Rafta, Rafta… and War Horse, and the genuinely innovative Travelex £10 season has been a huge boon to theatregoers, offering a large percentage of seats to some of the National’s most acclaimed productions for a tenner (including the current run of Saint Joan, starring Anne-Marie Duff). The scheme has made the theatre accessible to many who might otherwise not be able to afford it – and it wouldn’t have been possible without corporate sponsorship.

Though it’s tempting to consider such sponsorship schemes as a necessary evil, and to not have to add an evening at the theatre to the growing list of occasions where you have to grapple with ethical pros and cons, there is also the issue of artistic compromise to consider. The institutions in question claim artistic independence from their sponsors, but you do have to wonder whether an explicitly critical play about Shell, or even a drama exploring the consequences of climate change, would really make it to the stage with the oil company’s blessing.

EXTRACTS FROM COMMENTS POSTED TO THE ARTICLE

“The reason *this* feels worse, of course, is that it’s Shell, it’s oil, it all feels a bit dirty”.

“…yes, the fact that it’s Shell does leave a bad taste in the mouth”.

Corporate sponsorship means supping with the devil.

To read the entire comments go to…

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2007/07/do_corporate_sponsorships_comp.html

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