This is an English version of an article published on Scenekunst on 25 September 2024.
Liberal Self-Sabotage
By employing rough tactics typically associated with European right-wing populists, the Conservative and Liberal parties in Oslo may well succeed in dismantling Oslo Nye Teater. However, they risk losing their credibility as liberal parties in the process.
By Hans Antonsen
"Can we at least try to keep the drama on stage?" is a familiar plea for those of us who've worked behind the scenes at major performing arts institutions. This year, Oslo Nye Teater’s prayers have not been answered. They find themselves caught in a political farce where the script is rewritten weekly by someone in the City Government, though it's unclear exactly who. The word "sustainability" is repeated in every line, yet no one explains what it's supposed to mean.
The drama peaked last week: it was revealed that the City Government plans to cut funding for Oslo Nye from 90 to 53 million kroner next year—a 41% reduction! Simultaneously, the Vice Mayor for Culture, Anita Leirvik North (H), summoned the theatre’s general assembly with just one day’s notice, and personally dismissed the entire current board.
The new appointees are undoubtedly competent individuals. However, with two prominent figures from the governing parties on the board and a striking lack of experience in theatre as a collective art form, I must ask: are the claqueurs back in the theatre? Long ago, paid clappers would ensure a show was well-received, no matter how poor it might be. In this long-abolished tradition, they sat in the audience. Now, perhaps, they sit on the board, ready to applaud the City Government's plans?
A theatre cannot be treated like this. It is not a tool in the municipality’s policy arsenal, even though the municipality owns the shares. It is an independent cultural institution, a vital and free part of the infrastructure in a democracy. It is no coincidence that the central layout of the capital is defined by three grand buildings: the parliament, the university, and the national theatre. These are the kinds of institutions historian Timothy Snyder urges us to protect, as one of the 20 lessons we should take from the 20th century if we want to defend liberal democracy.
Norway’s theatre community is deeply shaken by what is happening to Oslo Nye Teater. My impression, even after attempting to spark a debate within my own party, the Liberals, is that disappointingly few people care. Then again, party membership these days often seems reduced to likes and clapping for one’s own.
Trust or Interference?
Two comparisons may clarify the gravity of the situation, starting with a local one:
At the beginning of 2024, Oslo's three major publicly funded theatres were in the same situation. The National Theatre, The Norwegian Theatre, and Oslo Nye Teater all had a financially terrible year behind them, ending with large deficits and negative equity. The reasons are complex, but they stem from the aftermath of the pandemic and strikes. Additionally, publicly-funded theatres have struggled to find their footing while Oslo’s private theatres thrive with more commercial titles.
With depleted equity, the Ministry of Culture requires state-supported theatres to present a plan to restore their equity within two years. The ministry assesses the realism of the plan but otherwise does not interfere with the measures taken. This process is characterised by sufficient time and trust.
Oslo municipality, on the other hand, directly intervened in the board’s responsibilities, mandating the exploration of specific alternatives. First, the theatre was told that the plans for 2025 could remain in place, then that restructuring had to happen quickly, and that nearly half of its subsidy would be cut next year.
The City Government and the theatre don’t even agree on the facts. The Vice Mayor for Culture argues that the theatre takes up too much of the cultural budget, while the theatre points out that its share is only 7%. From City Hall, we hear that they would rather spend money on promoting new voices. Oslo Nye asks how the city plans to do better than the theatre, which collaborates with six smaller companies, employs 300 freelancers, and hosts 50 performances in the Teaterkjeller’n each year.
It is, of course, the municipality’s right to decide how much funding it gives to Oslo Nye Teater. And as long as the city is the sole owner, the Vice Mayor for Culture can certainly hold a general assembly and appoint the board. But the abrupt manner in which it happened last week is something one must look beyond Norway’s borders to find parallels for.
Freedom Under Pressure
The European comparison looks like this: liberal democracies do not treat free cultural institutions this way.
Admittedly, this picture may be changing. On 24 September, cultural organisations gathered in Brussels to urge the European Commission and Parliament to do more to safeguard artistic freedom and prevent political interference. The situation at Oslo Nye Teater was cited as one alarming example.
While arts funding has been reduced in many European countries, one would be hard-pressed to find examples of funding being slashed by nearly half from one year to the next. Such a measure—along with the firing of boards or artistic directors directly—is a tactic employed by regimes that the Liberals and Conservatives in Norway would never want to be compared with. Yet, it happened in Slovakia just last August when the culture minister swiftly removed the leaders of the national theatre and gallery. In Italy, right-wing populist Giorgia Meloni has installed her own people to lead key cultural institutions. Similar incidents have occurred in Viktor Orban’s Hungary and Poland during the rule of the Law and Justice Party. And right now, in German states, the growing Alternative für Deutschland party is increasingly hostile toward theatres—so far without securing the majorities needed to punish dissenting voices.
A frightening scenario, far removed from the Norwegian idyll? Well, it's barely six years since a justice minister (FrP) issued an explicit threat against an Oslo theatre ("Black Box Teater lives of public funding. Without this support, the theatre would be financially bankrupt. Morally, the theatre is already bankrupt." (Aftenposten 17.12.18)). At the same time, a City Council member from the same party proposed cutting the theatre's funding.
Europe’s Premier Cultural City?
The City Government has an admirable ambition: for Oslo to be one of Europe’s foremost cultural cities. Based on the traditions of the Liberal and Conservative parties, we would expect a policy that fosters diversity, decentralises power, and, in good liberal spirit, trusts that this cultural city can only be built by many, certainly not controlled by a few.
A wise City Council should enable Oslo Nye Teater to continue its development — and choose its own direction. It is a legitimate demand that the finances be brought back into balance, but not that the theatre becomes a children's theatre or closes specific stages. That should be left to the artistic director, managing director, and board to decide. The demand for an arm’s-length distance, which will soon become law, also applies to the relationship between the city and the theatre.
Part of the explanation for Oslo Nye’s challenges is that the theatre has not been compensated for wage and price increases for much of the period since the municipality took full ownership in 1999. Impressively, the theatre has managed to adjust operations to this revenue loss, which likely amounts to 30 million kroner or more.
With Runar Hodne as artistic director, Oslo Nye Teater has recently gained one of the finest leaders in the performing arts. If the City Government is unwilling, the City Council must give the theatre time and resources to find balance and contribute to creating one of Europe’s leading cultural cities.
But this also requires that the people of Oslo understand that now is the time to rally around Oslo Nye Teater. If that doesn’t happen, we rural theatre enthusiasts might have to ask the question they dislike most of all: Why are Oslo residents so foolish?*
Hans Antonsen was director of ETC Member Det Norske Teatret from 2020-2024 and previously CEO at Kilden Performing Arts Centre, State Secretary, and Secretary General of the Liberal Party. He is currently the cultural director of Arendal.
* The concluding question refers to a famous Norwegian essay by West Norway-based theatre-critic and newspaper editor Per Håland, published in 1949.
Cover photo: Kilden Teater og Konserthus
