Challenge of

I am a regular patron of the Octagon Theatre, making the 120 mile round trip from my home in Leeds, because I know I will see first class theatre in a welcoming, place, at a very reasonable price. And as a lover of live theatre I feel lucky that I'm near enough - just - to make that trip.

Of course not every show has been to my taste but the challenge of the others is what live theatre is surely all about? If I only saw what I'm already familiar with from years of theatre going, then I, and theatre audiences everywhere, would be in danger of becoming moribund.

I have always found the programming at the Octagon to be a good mixture of the new and daring, with the classical and traditional, while those plays with a local Bolton setting have been sufficient enough in number to satisfy this Lancastrian in exile! No. The problem is not about programming, it's about under funding of the Arts in general so that the slightest tremor in local disturbance (disruptions for refurbishment) can produce an earthquake of seismic proportions. Bolton should be proud of its theatre which enjoys a national reputation for excellence. Its theatre is the cultural heart of a smashing town. If it were to disappear it would be to the loss of future generations.

A theatre can't be quantified in the way any high street business can, but it can be sustained by belief even in the harshest of times because times will change and as long as it's still there as a producing house there's a future. Now is the time to keep the faith as well as to sustain the fight.

Vanessa Walsh

Wetherby Road, Leeds

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.