Since Brexit, touring companies and other artists have struggled with administrative barriers against performing in mainland Europe. Nick Smurthwaite speaks to the founder of White Horse Theatre – an English-speaking theatre company based in Germany – who are suffering from the impact of this political event, and appealing to the government for change.
When teacher-turned-actor Peter Griffith set up the White Horse Theatre company in Somerset in 1978, with three other actors, it was with a view to touring schools in the West Country, which they did for seven years, negotiating the narrow lanes of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset in a decommissioned ambulance.
Knowing that English-speaking drama was popular in Germany, Griffith started accepting some overseas bookings and, by 1985, the demand for White Horse productions from German schools was far greater than it was at home. So, that year he daringly relocated the company – and his family – to Soest near Dusseldorf and went on to become Europe's largest educational touring theatre.
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