OH NO, WE DON’T! COVID RULES COULD LEAVE THEATRES PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE IN PANTO SEASON
nightmare before Christmas beckon?
The Covid measures implemented this week – and not due to expire until March 24 – have arrived at the onset of the panto season. This is crucial to many theatres’ survival: pantomimes attract three million punters a year, and can account for 20 per cent of a regional venue’s annual income.
The hammer blow is the 10-day self-isolation rule for those who come into contact with an omicron variant case. That recalls the summer, when indirectly affected actors or workers, regardless of vaccine status or negative tests, had to quarantine. One case could halt a show. The result was chaos: huge productions from
Hairspray to
Joseph closed.
Neil Laidlaw, producer of The Prince of Egypt, calls the new rule change “an existential threat”. As he explains: “There are about 112 cast, crew and musicians. Factor in front-of-house, ushers, security and so on – that’s 150 jobs at risk. We worked out that one person had 22 close contacts across the show. It’s like Russian roulette. Every morning, you’re waiting for the lateral flow test results.”
British theatre was just starting to recover, too. According to Michael Harrison, head of the UK’S leading panto company, Crossroads Live, Christmas bookings were “looking solid”.
He’s trying to stay upbeat. “I’m looking at the daily [box office] business at the Palladium, and the appetite is still there.” But there’s one particular anxiety for regional pantos. “Mixed messaging is scary for schools. If one authority decides against school trips, it tends to have a knock-on effect.”
Louise Chantal, artistic director of the Oxford Playhouse, whose production of Robin Hood opened yesterday, is already seeing that. “We’ve had people ringing up to cancel their bookings. Mainly schools, about two a day, every day this past week,” she says.
Laidlaw wants companies to be allowed to test their way out of a de facto shutdown. “That concession would allow us to keep going, and be as safe as we can be.” But there’s no sign of this yet.
And while Governmentbacked insurance now exists, the industry take-up has been negligible owing to the costs involved.