The Globe Theatre
An American actor, a Mr Sam Wanamaker, 3s interested in going into profitable property development though the name his game goes Under is Art. We are told this through a deluge of organised public relations releases about the property scheme he has in mind— a giant complex of shops, flats and more excitingly, offices on the south bank of the Thames—which has as its main platform, to overcome enfeebled planning authority opposition, some fanciful idea about recreat- ing Shakespeare's Globe theatre.
Not unexpectedly Mr Wanamaker makes some play of not wanting a capital grant or help from the authorities. Not at all sur- prising when the potential profit of the com- mercial complex is considered, though should the theatre come to be built I am sure those dispensers of Lord Eccles's bounty, the Arts Council, would not be long left alone without an approach.
The cost of a small theatre is a minor price for Mr Wanamaker's backers to pay. It earns headlines and as an exercise is of obvious help in beguiling the more unsus- pecting of those at the clic, some of whom still remember, I imagine, with pink faces, the planning permission that was given to the much heralded Press Centre off Fleet Street and which is turning out to be a very hard-headed high-rental venture indeed.
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