Autumn

Autumn is beginning to look like the most likely date for theatres to reopen, but the timing is fraught with difficulty. For as long as the lockdown continues, no-one is selling tickets, so the period leading up to September, when we would normally be creating sales, is barren. This means when theatres reopen, will we have an audience? And will the public be ready to go into a dark room for two hours sitting tightly together? But listening carefully to Government statements, I’m worrying whether permission will even be granted to reopen in the autumn: in which case things will turn desperate. Theatre is about large groups of people coming together – is that going to be possible if the stance is to continue isolation in various forms? Our industry’s future is at stake.