It can’t be curtains for theatres W
HEN I was little, going to the theatre was for posh people.
I might have been treated to a pantomime at the end of the year but for the other 11 months I was more likely to go to the Moon than be taken to a live production.
My mum and dad weren’t daft or ignorant. It just wasn’t what we did, wasn’t for us.
It took me until I was in my 20s to understand that live theatre, rather than being elitist and divisive, is actually quite the opposite.
That watching people dress up and play pretend can transform and transport you. It can make you think or cry or laugh and help the rather dull world outside recede until all that matters is what is happening before your eyes.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a play or a musical, professional or amateur, slapstick comedy or Shakespeare; theatre has the power to unite as you sit there among a crowd of strangers in the dark, waiting for the magic to begin.
At least, that’s what used to happen.
Now, theatres are dark, there seems little prospect of a return of audiences and the entire creative arts industry is in crisis.
We’ve had entertainment in lockdown, of course. There have been great things to watch on the telly, streaming services are in overdrive, Netflix is buoyant.
But it isn’t the same. Canned laughter is no substitute for the real thing and clapping on your own in your front room is no fun at all.
The recent good news about the reopening of pubs and hotels, hair salons and barbers is of course to be welcomed.
Livelihoods are at stake and the prospect of a return to a glimmer of normality is enticing.
Yet no such good news applies to theatre or for that matter to other live performances – whether that’s the circus, cabaret clubs, comedy nights, orchestras or choirs.
If we are not careful, entire institutions will fall, thousands will be out of work and the nation as a whole will be poorer. Action must be taken and taken now.
The Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, says he is passionate about the arts.
Here’s his chance to show it. Of course there will be those who argue that getting audiences back into theatres or concert halls should come way down on the list of priorities when it comes to cash bail outs but that’s nonsense.
Culture, in its broadest sense, makes our lives richer and that’s a price worth paying. Somehow, some way, the show must go on.