The Finborough, a narrow attic above a west London pub, is a theatrical treasure, specialising in revivals of neglected texts. In the last months before lockdown, it staged the first production for 75 years of Emlyn Williams’ religious drama The Wind of Heaven, and the first staging in four decades of Paul Kember’s kibbutz comedy Not Quite Jerusalem. Both were superb, and enthusiastically reviewed here.

All theatres have been devastated by the Covid closures – 70 per cent of venues expect soon to run out of money – but the Finborough’s position is exceptionally perilous. With no Arts Council or local government subsidy – relying on self-generated income, donations and co-production money – it is ineligible for any of the political emergency relief funds, and so lost almost all of its income when the theatres closed.

As a 50-seater house, it would also be unable to benefit from the reduced audience model that has already been introduced in some European theatres, and is among the suggestions in the “roadmap” for the return of theatre (though with no timescale) announced by culture secretary Oliver Dowden last week.