On Monday Boris Johnson announced his (apparently irreversible) plans to take us out of lockdown forever. He even provided a detailed timetable of dates when each stage should be implemented.
‘She leaves the space for you to have your own answer’: Playwright Sarah Kane as remembered by friend & fellow writer David Greig
It’s not that Sarah Kane had magical powers, but that she was with total integrity exploring her question. And there were a lot of amazing questions at that time.
‘It has been a bit like the Wild West’: Recognising those pioneers extending the digital frontier
While Matthew Warchus at the other end of the Cut from the Young Vic, may have the Old Vic that he presides over (without any subsidy) dark, too, actually the theatre has been in use regularly and has continued to produce throughout the pandemic, with its “In Camera” broadcasts of live performances that have been staged in its empty auditorium.
‘If our pub landlord closes, where will the theatre go then?’: Artistic director Lisa Spirling on dual threats to Theatre503
‘In terms of the future, we want 503 to be resilient and it feels like our community of audience and artists believe in the necessity of an organisation such as ours. At the same time, there are no guarantees.’
‘We have to do something else indefinitely but keep the keys to the building & look after them’: Royal Lyceum artistic director & playwright David Greig in Edinburgh
The more you think about the invitation to the audience – as you say ‘come, be blocked off behind screens, we will spray you and present shows where actors stand apart, and we will try to encourage you not to sing along’, it’s like an anti-theatre.
‘I don’t want to bank on a saviour that might not come’: Hartshorn-Hook producers on their plans to reopen The Great Gatsby
‘It feels to me like, with The Great Gatsby, we had an opportunity, and resulting from that a duty, to use the show to work out some of the key things that might help the industry as a whole.’
‘We don’t have an indefinite ability to keep going’: Park Theatre’s Jez Bond on the importance of the government’s furlough scheme
‘We’ve spent seven years building to this point and three years to open the thing, changed the area and culture of the place, and in the snap of the fingers, it’s a ghost town.’
‘In a year’s time, we would hope every theatre in the country is open & thriving’: SOLT chief executive Julian Bird on the way forward
‘The major question is that the majority of theatres cannot open with social distancing in place – it’s impossible, for economics, for the business case let alone the experience, it just doesn’t work.’
‘This has been a moment of privilege & I think it will be the making of us’: Out of Joint on the challenges & opportunities for touring after lockdown
‘The real unknown is when people are going to want to go back into the theatres, regardless of government advice. We don’t know that. It will be a long road.’
‘There are going to be some pretty sad stories that will come out of this period’: Baby Reindeer writer/performer Richard Gadd on his Corona cancelled West End run
‘I actually managed to be quite philosophical about it in the end. There’s a sense that we’re all in it today, and there are much bigger things at play, like people dying and getting sick.’
‘It’s not as if we’ve got a vast catalogue of ready-to-release captures of our shows’: Artistic director Tom Morris on Bristol Old Vic in lockdown
“As soon as the theatres closed in the week of 16 March 2020, we thought ‘we need to remember we’re a theatre and think about what our role in relation to the city might be in this strange world’.”
‘If new funds don’t come in, we can probably manage until the beginning of the autumn’: Artistic director Anthony Biggs on the Playground Theatre in lockdown
As the weeks of lockdown continue, with theatres up and down the country and around the world closed for the foreseeable future, I caught up with another artistic director, Anthony Biggs of west London’s Playground Theatre, to find out more how they were responding.
‘I’m not going to accept that I can’t grow an audience in that time’: British theatre’s shutdown described by industry insiders
Weeks into lockdown, with theatres up and down the country and around the world closed for the foreseeable future, I caught up with the artistic directors of Cirencester’s Barn Theatre, Belarus Free Theatre and Pitlochry Festival Theatre. How are they being affected? Will they survive?
That was the weekend we knew the theatres would go dark
On the weekend of 14 March 2020, following the closure of theatre on Broadway (on 12 March), it became clear that something overwhelming was about to happen to British theatre.
Response to Daily Telegraph critic Dominic Cavendish: You are the thought police
Dominic Cavendish can rest assured: he will not lose the opportunity to see his favourite (white) male actors in leading Shakespearean roles.
After organising the Critics’ Circle Awards, I have a crush on Glenda Jackson
My personal highlight from this year’s Awards: Glenda Jackson. The real prize for me was meeting this woman, who first found her voice in the arts and then used it to such powerful effect in politics.
Mark’s Critical Digest: Linda, Funny Girl, The Girls, Oliver!, Barbarians and Macbeth
Reviews digest of openings in London, Leicester and Leeds from national critics for new productions of Linda, Funny Girl, The Girls, Oliver!, Barbarians and Macbeth.
Charles Spencer, Mark Shenton, Tim Walker and the “strange world of theatre critics”
When the Daily Telegraph announced yesterday that Charles Spencer is retiring after 25 years as the newspaper’s theatre critic, there was an outpouring of appreciation for Charlie on Twitter: his long service, his astute opinions, his coins of phrase (Nicole Kidman = “pure theatrical Viagra”) and his public battles with his personal demons (alcoholism and […]