In a landmark move against industry precarity, Camden People’s Theatre (CPT) is overhauling its financial model, guaranteeing upfront pay to all main-programme artists for its Autumn 2025 season. This decisive shift, which Interim Executive Director Rio Matchett calls an “ethical imperative,” underpins a powerful new season dedicated to speaking truth to power, with work tackling everything from the war in Gaza to austerity Britain.
A Political and Practical Rebalancing of Risk
Camden People’s Theatre (CPT) has long been a vital springboard for emerging, politically engaged artists. Now, it is stepping into a leadership role on financial equity, announcing that every company programmed in its main Autumn 2025 season will receive a guaranteed upfront fee, ending the reliance on volatile box office splits.
The traditional door-split model—where an artist’s pay is directly dependent on ticket sales—has been exposed as a systemic flaw, particularly for early-career and marginalised artists. For Matchett, the move is deeply “political and practical.”
“Financial security for artists (as with all workers) is an ethical imperative, and ultimately, it means our audiences will see higher quality work,” Matchett explained. “For companies like the ones we work with, often two or three early career artists, box office splits mean it’s impossible to plan, and sometimes to pay people at all. It’s a crazy loophole in the national minimum wage policy!”
By offering a guarantee, CPT aims to rebalance the risk. The financial certainty, though not enabling the venue to pay “loads,” is critical because confirmed funding makes it much easier for companies to leverage additional funding from other sources.
“Financial security for artists (as with all workers) is an ethical imperative, and ultimately, it means our audiences will see higher quality work…”
Rio Matchett – CPT Executive Director
Rigour, Not Just Provocation: The Link Between Pay and Craft
The security provided by guaranteed pay has a direct impact on the art itself, enabling a higher standard of work to reach the stage. Matchett argues the change isn’t about fostering more controversial theatre, but more effective theatre.
“I think it’s probably less about them making more provocative work, and more about enabling more rigour in the craft,” Matchett stated. “It doesn’t take a lot of time to stand on stage and say something controversial. It does take time and hard work to hold an audience, bring nuanced arguments and questions, make the work as entertaining and joyful as it is political and challenging. That’s what I hope the guaranteed fees will free the artists up to do.”
To sustain this ambitious model, CPT will rely on a mixed-income approach: increased box office efforts, fundraising, and strategic support from aligned partners.
Strategic Shift: Longer Runs Build Momentum
Alongside the financial overhaul, CPT is implementing a major programming shift: fewer shows and longer runs. This is a strategic response to the difficulty mid-career artists face in building momentum for new work.
“It’s tricky to get reviewers in for a show that runs less than a week, and as you say, really hard to build momentum,” Matchett noted, identifying a gap in the national theatre ecology between one-night studio slots and full-scale national tours. The longer runs are intended to create a space for artists to develop their work and careers until they are ready for the next level.
Importantly, this enhanced support for finished work does not come at the expense of early-stage development. CPT is fiercely protective of its roots, confirming that its popular Tuesday scratch nights and work-in-progress programming will remain.
“Our whole purpose is artist development,” Matchett affirmed. The work-in-progress pipeline is vital for testing elements like comedy, pacing, and audience interaction, with CPT collecting feedback that genuinely changes the material.
The Autumn Season: Speaking Truth to Power
The Autumn 2025 season is CPT’s boldest expression yet of its mission to platform urgent political voices.
“I think our job is that old cliche, we need to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,” Matchett said, explaining the decision to “double down on such urgent political work right now.”
“It doesn’t take a lot of time to stand on stage and say something controversial. It does take time and hard work to hold an audience, bring nuanced arguments and questions, make the work as entertaining and joyful as it is political and challenging. That’s what I hope the guaranteed fees will free the artists up to do.”
The season’s lineup includes:
Living with Drones by Stitched!—An electrifying piece of live journalism exploring the traumatic reality and international law violations stemming from Israel’s use of drones in Gaza.
The Foodbank Show by Carmen Collective—A “furious, funny” and participatory protest about austerity Britain and the three million people currently reliant on food banks.
Countess Dracula—A blood-soaked, comic reworking that collides clowning with menopausal fury, biting back at society’s fear of ageing women.
City for Incurable Women—A surreal dive into 19th-century medical misogyny and the legacies of ‘hysteria’ diagnoses. (We caught this earlier this year at the Edinburgh Fringe and gave it a glowing review.)
A Court of Paper—A probing multimedia excavation of Dutch family complicity and resistance during the Nazi era.
Barrier(s)—A touching, queer, bilingual love story presented by Deafinitely Theatre, exploring connection across language and silence.
Idealism and the power of storytelling
Matchett believes art should be a “training ground for imagination and possibility.” Asked what truly captures the spirit of CPT, Matchett shouted out Rajiv’s Starry Feelings, their first-ever children’s show, a sensory, accessible story about helping kids with their feelings—an example of doing new things in conversation with what the local community wants.
“Honestly, I’m a total idealist, and I believe completely in the power of storytelling to change people, and therefore change the world—it’s cheesy, but it’s true!” Matchett concluded. The goal is simple: to be seen as a place of high support and high challenge, where audiences can find kindness, fun, and work at the cutting edge.
Ultimately, CPT hopes the single feeling audiences walk away with is community: “Whether they’ve seen something joyful and silly, or something political and enraging, I hope they feel connected to the other human beings in the room.”
Featured Image: The_Foodbank_Show – photo credit_ Mo Pittaway
By
