Guido can reveal that the Royal Court Theatre – which has recently become embroiled in its third antisemitism row after staging a play featuring a world-conquering billionaire character named ‘Hershel Fink’ – received £9,244,936 in public money from the Arts Council of England between 2018-2022. The controversial London theatre is advised by Lord Wood, who is a director of the organisation – a post he’s held since 2007. Guido wonders what advice he is giving that allows such obviously racist tropes to slip through the net…

The play, which according to the trailer is about “power, money, (…) and the apathy of powerful people”, was forced to change the name of its protagonist Hershel Fink to Henry Finn after Jewish activists including David Baddiel slammed the production for racism. Royal Court Theatre later apologised “unreservedly for this situation” and blamed “unconscious bias” for their mistake. Pretty poor excuse…

Royal Court Theatre has a history of controversy, sometimes of a similar kind. In 1987 they tried to put on Loach’s Perdition which was labelled “deeply anti-semitic” by Martin Gilbert. In 2007, the theatre staged the deeply dubious “Seven Jewish Children”. Their choices seem to be conscious and systemic…