Actors reject new pay offer

The actors' union Equity last night refused an improved pay offer yesterday to 35,000 actors aimed at averting a nationwide shutdown.

The union said it had rejected the Theatrical Management Association offer - covering the "vast majority" of 100 subsidised regional British theatres, and raising actors' basic minimum salary from pounds 190 to pounds 250 a week by April next year - because it excluded 24 theatres from the main pay increase and offered only pounds 4 a week extra in subsistence payments. However, the two sides have agreed to meet for further talks on Monday.