I WENT to see a play at Wolverhampton last week - Tunes Of Glory.

It was directed and produced by a friend of mine who runs a theatre company called Middleground. The company has regularly visited the Swan with plays such as The Holly And The Ivy and Dial M For Murder.

It was a terrific play, done really well by a top flight professional cast. And as I sat there enjoying the tense drama with the other couple of hundred people, I couldn't help but start doing some maths. Fifteen actors in the cast, some of them pretty big names. Then there's a stage manager and deputy stage manager. In the production, there was some film shots with a pipe band in the correct costume and the band, a barracks and three cameras had been hired at enormous cost.

My calculation as to the cost of the production per night against the ticket money from the audience that night in no way balances, and my Middleground friend must have been losing a packet.

Large casts are very expensive to tour, but it would be a huge shame if we only saw small cast plays as a result of touring costs. But where does the money come from to subsidise it? I wish I knew.

CENTRE STAGEChris Jaegar of Worcester Live