One side of me thinks that the Government should be giving free tickets to our impoverished old codgers and another feels that its new scheme won’t have much impact on our wayward teenagers. Gang members won’t change because, golly gosh, some rep is staging King Lear.

Still, anything that lures the young from their computers, proving the power of live drama, is to be welcomed. But let’s also acknowledge that many companies already do much to encourage them to discover the theatre. The RSC sells 40,000 £5 tickets a year to 16 to 25-year-olds and sends actors into 250 schools, encouraging children to discover drama on their feet. They’ve seen ten-year-olds tackle Julius Caesar, even eight-year-olds perform bits of Richard II.

But such schemes, aimed at those ignorant of the theatre, point up the problem with the Government’s plan. How will the participating theatres pick out those who need convincing that drama isn’t just for their social, economic and cultural betters?

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