Curtain comes down on panto in theatre crisis

● Funds set aside for revamp of historic venue being used for virus-related costs

The King’s Theatre in Edinburgh is facing a deepening crisis after being forced to axe its annual Christmas panto and use money set aside for a long-awaited revamp needed to prevent permanent closure of the 114-year-old building to cover the costs of the coronavirus-related closure.

Calling off this year’s production of Sleeping Beauty, which was due to run from late November till mid January, due to the impact of the pandemic will result in losses of £2.3 million – a third of the normal annual income for its operators, Capital Theatres.

There is also huge uncertainty over when the muchneeded refurbishment will be carried out, due to a growing funding gap while the theatre is closed indefinitely.

It has already had to refund more than £2m worth of tickets for cancelled shows at the King’s and the Festival Theatre, which it also runs.

It will only be the fourth occasion in the history of the King’s that it has not staged a panto since it opened in 1906. Previous stars include Stanley Baxter, Jimmy Logan, Rikki Fulton and Gregor Fisher.

Capital Theatres chief executive Fiona Gibson said the loss of the show, which sells more than 90,000 tickets each year, would be “devastating.”

She said the King’s was facing a “double jeopardy” future with no prospect of being able to stage shows until well into next year and growing uncertainty over when it would be able to start work on a £25m makeover. Due to get under way in September 2021, it has already had to be postponed for a year due to the pandemic.

Ms Gibson said a £6m development fund to help fund the project was having to be used to meet the costs of the temporary closure of the venues.

All performing arts centres in Scotland were forced to close their doors in March due to the spread of coronavirus.

Although they have been told they may be able to reopen in mid-september, strict social distancing is expected to be enforced, ruling out shows like the King’s panto going ahead.

Ticketholders for the King’s show will be able to transfer their booking to 2021, when it is hoped Sleeping Beauty will be able to go ahead, although Ms Gibson admitted it was unclear when the King’s would be able to reopen next year.

She said: “There is no guidance yet for how theatres in Scotland, but it is looking like there will be two-metre social distancing. We have talked about the viability of trying to do socially-distanced performances, but it just became obvious that it wouldn’t work for the panto.

“The biggest thing issue with the panto is the safety of the cast being able to rehearse and be close to each other, and also the scale of the panto sets. It is just too difficult.

“The loss of the panto is really significant for us because it makes up a large chunk of our income every year.

“We are very concerned about the redevelopment in the long term. We were building up funds for that but we’re having to repurpose them now.

“We’re going into a double jeopardy situation. We want to save the King’s and save our staff, but both of are in jeopardy, especially after losing the panto.”