METROSCOPE
ROSIE MURRAYWEST ASKS THE EXPERTS WHAT BORIS JOHNSON’S ROADMAP WILL REALLY MEAN FOR THEATRE AND THE ARTS
Aries Mar 21 – Apr 20
As Venus moves into a private zone, her presence indicates a desire for secrecy. You may want to keep a new relationship under wraps or have other plans you aren’t yet ready to share. There’s certainly a lot going on behind the scenes.
For your forecast, call 0906 474 0410 (60p/min)
Taurus Apr 21 – May 21
Venus glides into your social zone so you’ll be ready to connect with others who share your interests. You might also be drawn to creative or spiritual people. Someone you meet could be a breath of fresh air.
For your forecast, call 0906 474 0411 (60p/min)
Gemini May 22 – Jun 21 Diplomatic Venus moves into your sector of goals so make full use of your natural wit and charm to make a good impression. You’ll have the ability to read others’ vibes and sense what they are thinking, which could be to your advantage.
For your forecast, call 0906 474 0412 (60p/min)
Cancer Jun 22 – Jul 23
Need a boost? A teacher, life coach or someone with a lot of experience could give you a fresh perspective and hope. If you’re ready to meet someone special, you might find them when trying out a new interest online for the first time.
For your forecast, call 0906 474 0413 (60p/min)
Leo Jul 24 – Aug 23
A soothing influence could be like a balm to your soul, enabling you to be still rather than overreact to awkward situations. If you’ve felt ruffled by recent events, the presence of Venus can help. Taking a relaxed approach could leave you more at ease. For your forecast, call 0906 474 0414 (60p/min)
Virgo Aug 24 – Sep 23
Relationships are emphasised as Venus moves into Pisces. This can be a romantic influence, so the desire to reach out may be stronger than usual. If there are major issues to talk about, this is the ideal time to do so. For your forecast, call 0906 474 0415 (60p/min)
Libra Sep 24 – Oct 23
A brilliant idea could spring to mind just when you need it. The Sun’s harmonious angle with Uranus suggests that it can be a moneyspinner too. If you get a sudden urge to act on it then do so, as you may well find that you benefit.
For your forecast, call 0906 474 0416 (60p/min)
Scorpio Oct 24 – Nov 22
Taking time out with your partner to do something special could add sizzle. If you’re solo, the coming weeks are perfect for an online meeting that sparkles with promise. If you share an interest, it might take off. For your forecast, call 0906 474 0417 (60p/min)
Sagittarius Nov 23 – Dec 21
As Venus moves into your home zone, it may be easier to resolve any family issues and find a solution that suits everyone. Does your place need some brightening up? If so, this creative influence can be a call to indulge in some redecorating.
For your forecast, call 0906 474 0418 (60p/min)
Capricorn Dec 22 – Jan 20
Have meetings to attend or something urgent to discuss? Venus can help, as she eases into your communication zone. Her calming influence encourages you and others to see all sides of the situation, leading to fairer decisions.
For your forecast, call 0906 474 0419 (60p/min)
Aquarius Jan 21 – Feb 19
The desire to be freer with your finances could find you eager to give to good causes or to indulge in small treats, especially if you’ve been keeping an eye on spending. Easing up might do you the world of good, if you throw in a little pampering too.
For your forecast, call 0906 474 0420 (60p/min)
Pisces Feb 20 – Mar 20
Feel-good Venus dances into your sign from today, encouraging you to connect with friends, family and anyone who needs some sympathy. Ready for a makeover? You could be inspired to reinvent yourself. For your forecast, call 0906 474 0421 (60p/min)
IT’S like a play… the script isn’t quite written yet, and I’m sure there will be a few plot twists along the way, but it’s beginning to feel like there might be an opening night.’ That’s the view of Maureen McAllister, operations director of the Palace Theatre Paignton – one of Britain’s 1,100 sleeping theatres. Most shut their doors last March, and although some reopened for a matter of weeks in the autumn, the plays they put on were socially distanced, loss-making and forced to shut prematurely.
As a result, forecasters suggested that as many as 70 per cent of theatres in the UK could shut for good, with thousands of other events venues suffering a similar fate. Although it is provisional, Maureen believes that
‘I am cautiously optimistic that our front doors will open’
this week’s post-Covid roadmap provides a glimmer of light for the arts and entertainment sectors.
‘I am cautiously optimistic that our front doors will open,’ she says.
The roadmap, while very much provisional, gave two dates for the reopening of UK theatre. If all tests are met around infections, Covid spread and hospitalisations, theatres and concert halls will be able to open on May 17 with 50 per cent capacity, followed by the tantalising possibility of full opening on July 21 if social distancing rules are scrapped.
But questions still remain over how the arts industry, which has been closed for so long, will be able to get back on its feet and play its part in Britain’s recovery.
‘ON TOP of the fact that artists can’t earn at home, Brexit looks like a catastrophe,’ says John Gilhooly, director of the Wigmore Hall.
Britain’s exit from the European Union brings more red tape for theatres wanting to tour, musicians and actors wanting to work abroad, and the UK road, sound and light crews who are known as some of the best in the industry.
Peter Heath at PLASA says that Britain has built up specialist expertise in touring events, but fears that the requirement for visas for those who support events with sound, lighting and transport, mean that jobs will be lost.
‘We are really good at this, but other European countries will see this as an opportunity for them,’ he says.
The National Theatre has already announced that it will not tour in Europe due to the issue of everyone requiring a
Shuttered: short-term work permit before they can go.
More than 280,000 people signed a petition calling on the government to negotiate a free culture work permit for UK performers in the EU, with support from stars such as Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Julie Walters, Celia Imrie and Anne-Marie Duff, but the government claimed the EU rejected its proposals for visa-free creative travel.
The government is now understood to be looking at the creation of a new export office to deal with the issues around visas for the creative industry – although it emerged last week that negotiations with the EU had not restarted on the possibility of visa-free access for the British creative sector.
‘Instinct tells me that common sense will prevail, but it’s very unfortunate,’ says John at the Wigmore Hall.
THERE’S a line attributed to the Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, that has been cited to me a lot over the past few weeks; if you build it, they will come.
The movie, about a farmer who risks financial ruin to fulfil his dream of building a baseball field, is a classic of American cinema, and the quote is often offered as a visionary business mantra.
Offered, I should say, by those mostly not in business. As a principle for entrepreneurship, the simplicity of monetising one’s vision, as long as you believe in it enough is wonderfully, disastrously naive.
There is a certain truth to the words but it’s to be found in its less snappy, negative inversion; if you don’t build it, how can you expect people to come at all? This line has been sent to me so often of late because I have indeed been part of building something, potentially hugely significant, that has had people coming in their droves, that shows a demand for women’s sport we are consistently told isn’t there.
I was asked to guest edit a women’s only issue of Rouleur, the largest cycle sport magazine in the world. I was asked as a journalist, not a businesswoman, with no consideration for what we’re told sells or gets the most clicks. I could disregard the data on what is supposed to make successful sports publishing and go with what felt right, what was interesting, what I would like to see when I open a magazine.
From a provocative front cover featuring only the mouth of ninetimes world BMX champion Shanaze Reade, to features on women in Pakistan and plussized cycling, discussions on motherhood and sexism with women at the top of their game and liberal use of the word vagina, we knew we had created something different and special.
What we didn’t realise is we had also created the best business case for increased coverage of women in sport that I have seen to date. The issue has been the fastest selling in the magazine’s history and has led to a leap in subscriptions, among men as well as women. It has had to be restocked twice and reprinted to meet demand.
Should we have foreseen that success and had enough copies on hand to meet initial demand? Perhaps, but sometimes it’s nice to be wrong. As the executive editor of the magazine Ian Cleverly said: ‘When you’ve been in the business of selling a sports magazine for 15 years, you think you know what sells.’
What if all our supposed knowledge of what sells is based only on traditional parameters of sports promotion? What if there is actually a wider audience for the stories of women in sport, if they’re told and promoted with the same dedication as the men’s? The unprecedented success of this one magazine issue is already enough for these questions to be considered more widely in cycling media at least.
Since our double sell-out, another publication has dedicated an issue to women’s cycling, while yet another’s homepage has begun to feature a noticeably more even gender divide. This corner of sports journalism, for now at least, is changing, and the arguments in favour are no longer based in ethics and representation, but cold, hard business.
Selling a magazine of feature stories is, of course, different from presenting match results or attracting viewers to live sport, but they are built around the same principle. Spectator sport is, superficially, an appreciation of talent and skill as displayed by the very best in their field. It’s a nice escape from everyday life. But it is also, more fundamentally, an exercise in social connection. It is a did-you-see, and whatdid-you-think-of excuse to engage in the most primordial need of humankind, interpersonal interaction.
We watch matches and races we know we can’t miss if we want to be part of the conversation, but it’s a conversation dictated by so much more than individual interests. Everything about sports presentation, whether it be in print or broadcast, tells us if we want to be part of the discourse, we must consume men’s sport first, second and tenth. As a working, lockeddown, mother of two, when I click on the sports pages in the morning, I go through the highest listed stories first, to make sure I’m up to date. The rest, I can catch up on when I have time, if I have time.
The cumulative result is I know more about what I’ve been fed as being the top stories, and am more likely to click on them again tomorrow. This is the basic building of a narrative, dressed up as giving an audience what it wants. There is, of course, an element of supply and demand, but what if the supply was different? Could it be if the media chose to put women’s sport at the top of bulletins, it would create more demand for those stories? Could it even be that sports as a whole could attract a wider audience, keeping the loyal core but also adding those who might finally see themselves reflected in some way in sports coverage?
This notion might have seemed fanciful even to me, had I not been involved in building such a strong business case in favour. We built it, they came. You can argue with Hollywood, but it’s much harder to argue with the bottom line.
■ To buy the Rouleur women’s edition, go to www.rouleur.cc
What if there is actually a wider audience for stories of women in sport?
ENGLAND endured a miserable start to the day/night third Test against India, crumbling to 112 all out before watching the hosts reach 99 for three by the close in response.
Joe Root won the toss in Ahmedabad but, aside from an assured fifty from Zak Crawley, that was as good as it got for the tourists, who were dismantled in less than 50 overs before failing to recreate the same havoc when they got the pink ball in their own hands.
With much pre-match talk about the uncertainty over the ‘twilight’ period and how hard it might be to bat against seam, England lost their first eight wickets before the floodlights were even switched on and nine of their batsmen fell victim to spin.
They were all out soon after for their
worst first-innings total in India – lowering a mark set during last week’s hefty defeat in Chennai by another 22 – with fit-again Crawley’s elegant 53 the only note of resistance.
From 74 for two they lost their last eight wickets for just 38 more, as leftarm spinner Axar Patel claimed six for 38 and Ravichandran Ashwin chipped in with three of his own.
All this in a match tipped to be more helpful for seamers, which would in theory be good news for England, whose decision to pick Jack Leach as sole spinner now looks misguided.
There was a frustrating repetitiveness to the English demise, with five of their top six failing to make contact while pushing forward. Crawley, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root
– done by umpire’s call after opting to review – and Ben Stokes all fell lbw, while Ollie Pope was bowled. Dom Sibley went for a duck as Ishant Sharma had a happy start to his 100th Test appearance. From 81 for four at the interval, England went into full tail-spin, losing Pope and Stokes in the first two overs after the restart. Axar rattled through the lower order with Jofra Archer, Leach and Stuart Broad out to a variety of unsuccessful shots. Ben Foakes lasted 58 balls for 12 before he was last man out.
In response, Shubman Gill went for 11, top-edging an ill-judged pull to give Archer the breakthrough before Leach dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara lbw for nought by sending one on with the arm. Rohit Sharma passed 50 to keep his side in control but England did at least pick up India captain Virat Kohli – earlier dropped by Pope off James Anderson – before the close when he dragged Leach onto his stumps.
India were 13 short at stumps, with England visibly frustrated and growing tetchy about third umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin’s willingness to wave away their reviews in haste.
Six appeal: Axar leaps into his captain’s arms after taking the wicket of Crawley, the only tourist who made significant runs
DELE ALLI showed he has his mojo back with a stunning overhead kick and two assists to send Tottenham cruising through to the Europa League last 16 with a convincing second-leg win over Wolfsberger.
Alli has had a season to forget having been frozen out by boss Jose Mourinho, but enjoyed the best night of his reintegration to the squad following a failed bid to leave the club last month.
The England international produced a superb goal and then set up both Carlos Vinicius, who scored again late on, and Gareth Bale as Spurs made it through to Friday’s draw for the next round with a 4-0 home win on the night and an 8-1 aggregate success.
With his back to goal around 15 yards out, the rejuvenated midfielder’s control from Matt Doherty’s fizzing cross saw the ball bounce above his head and he waited for it to drop before sending an overhead kick looping into the far corner.
Defender Eric Dier said: ‘I’m delighted for [Dele]. A fantastic goal and I think step-by-step he is getting back to his best, and that goal was another glimpse of that and what he can bring to the team. In football everyone has a short memory and maybe they have forgotten Dele’s quality – he’s given them a reminder of that tonight and hopefully he can keep pushing.’
Mourinho was more content with Alli’s all-round performance and said: ‘He had a difficult period. He had the injury and at the same time was “talk, talk, talk” about staying/leaving.
‘The market closed, the injury has gone, he has started working with lots of motivation and it is coming. That’s what we need. He is playing very well. The goal was beautiful.
‘But the meaning of the assist, the meaning of the hard work for the team means more for me because an artistic goal – he can do it, but that work, that continuity in the performance makes me really happy.’