Author: James Haddrell

This time last year I was writing a column listing my highlights for 2020, from big West End shows to fringe shows full of exciting potential, mapping out a year of theatregoing. Little could I know that theatres would end up closed for most of the year.

With theatres closed once again due to Covid-19 it is easy for us as an industry to either desperately search for ways to continue what we were doing before, either online or maybe next month with socially distanced audiences, or just to cease operation until this is all over so that we can turn everything back on in 2021.

We may be back in lockdown but at Greenwich Theatre we remain determined to present some of the most exciting new work around, so the Government’s confirmation that we can work in the building on rehearsal and streamed performances was certainly a welcome one.

As we enter a new national lockdown we are all approaching the weeks ahead with a much better understanding of what that is going to mean.

If there is one thing that the pandemic has made us challenge in the theatre industry, it’s the nature of theatre. What makes something theatre? A year ago the answer would inevitably have been something to do with a group of people coming together to watch or participate in an event, performed by another person or group of people.

If there is one thing that the pandemic has made us challenge in the theatre industry, it’s the nature of theatre. What makes something theatre? A year ago the answer would inevitably have been something to do with a group of people coming together to watch or participate in an event, performed by another person or group of people.

The pandemic has meant many things to arts organisations across the country. Clearly, at the top of the list, is the fight for survival brought about by a long period of closure and the ongoing inability to accurately forecast a full reopening.

At a time when theatres are only gradually returning to business, with socially distanced audiences, restrictions on bar sales and uncertainty around funding applications, venues around the country are facing the same question. To paraphrase The Sound Of Music – “how do you solve a problem like pantomime?”

For over 12 years in the first half of the nineteenth century, Giuseppe Garibaldi, the hero of Italian unification, lived, learned and fought in South America. He was tortured, escaped death on countless occasions, and met his Brazilian wife, Anita, who eloped with him in 1839.

While lockdown begins to ease, with markets already reopened, non-essential shops set to reopen next Monday and even zoos now given the go-ahead to welcome visitors again, those working in theatre – and those who love going to the theatre – are desperate for an indication of when performance venues may join the list of businesses permitted to resume their operations.

Over the past few weeks the word emergency has become incredibly significant in theatre, as Arts Council England has been assessing and responding to applications to their emergency response fund from individual artists, companies and venues.

Regular readers will know that I have been reflecting over the past few weeks on the explosion of free theatre currently available to watch online.

Like many other theatres, at Greenwich we are offering audiences the opportunity to watch theatre from home while we’re all caught up in lockdown.

As the period of lockdown that we’re all living through is formally extended, more and more theatres and theatre companies are dusting off video recordings of their back catalogue and presenting work online, much of it for free.

I have often wondered whether there is a way that theatre could engage audiences on a returning basis in the