Wales and Scotland need a cultural revolution

Here's a question Chris Tarrant would probably price at £32,000. Is the National Theatre the National Theatre of Britain or just of England? I have to confess I wasn't sure of the answer. I was pretty sure that when it was founded, "National" implied "Britain". But post devolution, and funded by the Arts Council of England with no money from the Arts Council of Wales or Scotland, can the London-based institution still claim to represent the artistic soul of either Scotland or Wales?

I phoned a friend, the NT's head of press and publicity. She told me that abroad the NT styled itself the "National Theatre of Great Britain" (to avoid confusion with other countries' national theatres), but here it was simply the National Theatre. Yes, but what was the definition of "national"? It seems the exact definition had not been attempted.

I'm not sure what Chris Tarrant would make of that. To me, the nationality of the funding body and the reluctance of anyone in the NT hierarchy to declare it embraces Scotland and Wales suggest that it is the National Theatre of England. This means there is room for more national theatres, and however the NT defines itself, it can surely not be long before they appear.

In Wales it has been happening almost by stealth. Terry Hands, the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been turning his new fiefdom, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, into an acclaimed centre of theatre. I predict that he will procure the title National Theatre of Wales in the next two years. The Wales Millennium Centre being built in Cardiff could, with its splendid auditorium, give him a base in south Wales as well as at Clwyd in the north.

In Scotland, where there are major national and international producing venues such as the Glasgow Citizens theatre and the Traverse in Edinburgh, the case for a Scottish national theatre surely cannot be resisted much longer. The actor Brian Cox made an interesting suggestion in The Stage this week. Cox, who hails from Dundee, says the Scottish executive is missing a great opportunity to create a national theatre that would raise the profile of Scottish culture. Cox advocates an SNT not centred on a particular building but a commissioning body using several venues.

That may be democratic and save internecine sniping; but I suspect it may not be the best idea. A building concentrates the mind, attracts tourists and helps to make the concept a reality for the theatre-going public.

A national theatre also concentrates the mind on a nation's cultural psyche and history. That is why devolution has made the time more ripe than ever – and it has long been ripe – for Scotland and Wales to have their own national theatres. The NT, on London's South Bank, cannot serve Wales and Scotland culturally any more than it can serve them geographically. A national theatre needs to be in touch with a new, national generation of playwrights and to have a sense of its own nation's nationalist concerns and world outlook, past and present. It's time for proper cultural devolution.

¿ The Lister Experiment is to continue into 2003, I'm pleased to say. My conviction is that a new audience can be encouraged to go to the theatre if good seats are available at cinema prices for selected performances. The next two productions available to readers are both in the critically acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company season of rarely performed Jacobean plays. The shows are on at the Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London. The season's producers, Thelma Holt and Bill Kenwright, have agreed to offer good seats at £11.50, the price of a West End cinema ticket, for Edward the Third on Monday 27 January, and The Island Princess on Wednesday 29 January. Readers should ring the box office (0870 890 1105) and mention the Lister Experiment.

¿ On Monday the percussionist Evelyn Glennie will give a performance at an unusual venue, the Aylesbury Young Offenders Institution. It is part of the work she does with the charity Live Music Now. She tells me: "I have visited several prisons up and down the UK. I really enjoy sharing my music with the inmates and get such an immensely positive feeling from their reactions to the music and to the experience itself." It also gives a new meaning to being "banged up".

¿ In the film The Gangs of New York, which opened this week, Leonardo DiCaprio's character is mutilated and beaten by Daniel Day-Lewis's character. Day-Lewis warns him that he will now be a "freak". In subsequent shots he sports a rather sexy bruise and little sign of any other damage. It's a Hollywood tradition that leading men, particularly those with a large female fan-base, should retain their looks, whatever harm the script inflicts upon them. But it is depressing to see a director of the class and individuality of Martin Scorsese succumbing to that tradition.

d.lister@independent.co.uk