Award-winning, not-for-profit theatre, the Donmar, is a registered charity For information / donations see: https://www.donmarwarehouse.com/support/

JAMES Bond movie director Sam Mendes has hit out a funding cut for a pioneering theatre in ­Seven Dials.

The Donmar Warehouse in Earlham Street was one of the big losers in a new grants programme from Arts Council England which has seen more organisations outside of London – including libraries, museums and arts organisations – receive cash help.

Mr Mendes, a founding artistic director who won an Oscar for American Beauty and went on to make Skyfall, considered one of the best-ever Bond films, said: “Cutting the Donmar’s funding is a short-sighted decision that will wreak long-lasting damage on the wider industry.

“The Donmar has been at the heart of British theatre for three decades, and has a hard-won legacy of punching well above its weight in both its ambition and reach.

“It is a world-renowned and hugely influential theatre, and the United Kingdom cannot afford to put it at risk.”

Nadine Dorries, a former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here contestant, asked for money to be spent in towns and cities outside of London earlier this year when she was Boris Johnson’s culture secretary.

Sam Mendes

Nearly £450million in funding will now be shared between 990 recipients, but it means an annual drop for places like the Donmar Warehouse.

It had pledged in its application to work on projects that spread its work to Kent and other counties with touring work, and was ready to work with 17,000 children.

The Hampstead Theatre in Eton Avenue will also now be down on funding.

Artistic director, Roxana Silbert and producer Greg Ripley-Duggan, said they were “saddened” by the decision, adding:

“We will now consider how best to ensure the future of a company which nurtures and supports so many writers and which has for so long been an essential part of British theatre.

Sir Nicholas Serota (inset), the chair of Arts Council England, said “I think the position was made clear when the secretary of state instructed us to take money out of London, and also encouraged us to take funding from central London to parts of the city that haven’t previously had funding.

“We’ve just simply had to make some invidious choices about where we fund the most.”