Benno Plassmann - The Working Party Ltd. (Berlin/Glasgow)

Dear Judy, Dear Richard!

How sad I was to read about the ACW's decision to withdraw revenue funding for the CPR. While living and working in the UK for more than 10 years (following the many years spent studying, working, researching and producing in Italy, Malta and South
America) it has always been so clear for me that the CPR is one of those hugely important entry points for international theatre culture into the UK, and a clearing house for many performers and groups from Wales and the UK to venture abroad.

But I realise that this statement will necessarily fall on deaf ears with many cultural decision makers as all too many often lack experience of what the term 'theatre culture' signifies. It is obvious that each nation, culture will have a different performance culture, negotiating meaning, importance, money, production structures, human contact in very different ways. Some people think of 'productions' when they hear the word 'theatre', some people think of written plays, others think of the master where they have learnt their craft, others think of the wandering singer or sage, and others think of a building. So be it! This multiplicity is testimony to the beauty of the human being in knowingly organised behavior, in performance!

But not realising that one's own vision of the 'culture of theatre' is not THE only one, is simply a sign of great poverty. I do hope that Wales will use her hard fought-for autonomy to make herself stronger, wider, more open, and not to impoverish herself.
Wales is worth more than the poverty others have pushed her into all too often.

I wish you good luck in your ongoing struggle for those spaces of freedom and cultural stimulus we all so dearly need, and remain yours,

Benno Plassmann
The Working Party Ltd. (Berlin/Glasgow)
International network 'Linea Trasversale'