There has always been a curious relationship between theatre and film. On the one hand, they do the same thing – telling stories about the human condition using words and images, actors and light, sets and sound. On the other hand, it’s hard to film theatre well and for audiences, it’s cheaper to go to the cinema.

And then what happens when one decides to film the making of theatre? The result can be as entertaining as the brilliant Canadian series Slings and Arrows or as tedious as the recent ABC production Bad Company. The latter is an utterly humourless series full of appalling stereotypes of theatre “types”. It’s enough to turn people off going to the theatre let alone working for a theatre company. On other hand, I’ve used Slings and Arrows to teach arts management. It offers both humour and understanding about how a theatre company is run.

There’s a classic scene, for example, where the Chairman of the Board does what so many in that position have done: assume that a business expert is better placed to be CEO of an organisation than an artist. He’s wrong of course. Without artistic vision at the top of an arts company, its heart is lost. The best result for many arts and cultural organisations is to have a model that business people often find frightening or simply don’t understand: a co-leadership model which enables both the artistic director and the managing director to work in tandem.

Not that such relationships are always perfect. There’s another extract that I love where the classic tension between art and money plays out.

If the AD and MD can find a way to work together though good communication and trust building, and both are applying their individual skill sets for the benefit of the company, then the result should be great art that attracts enough audiences and funders to be able to afford the next year of equally great art.