How to save your local theatre

‘They’ve listened, they’ve actually listened to us’

Dear readers — in November 2022, the Arts Council withdrew funding from Oldham Coliseum, an illustrious 139-year-old theatre that helped to launch the careers of actors like Bernard Cribbins and Olivia Cooke, due to serious concerns over the governance of the theatre. The loss of public funding — £600,000 a year, representing around a third of revenue — was a hammer blow that put the Coliseum’s future in grave doubt. To make matters worse, the ageing building was no longer fit for purpose, and there was nowhere else for the company to go.

Mollie went to the Coliseum’s final show last year, and found a mixture of defiance and defeatism. Many had reluctantly accepted that it was the final time they would take a seat in its historic atrium. But Jane Barker, a local archaeologist and long-time season-ticket holder, wasn’t willing to let the theatre go so easily. With a campaign that began in the upstairs room of an Italian restaurant, momentum has built until, this month, Oldham Council an…