Mr. Neil Murray:

On the turnover of staff, it is always disappointing when brilliant people leave. In my experience of working in theatre, which I have done for a long time, there is a rhythm and people often work with certain directors and regimes for a couple of years before things start to change and the wind blows in a different direction. We have lost some brilliant people, which I regret, but we have replaced them with brilliant people and I feel we have a really good, solid team at the Abbey at the moment.

I would want to stamp on any hint of blacklisting people. Many of the signatories are my friends and they are all colleagues. Blacklisting will not happen.