Theatre in lockdown

Theatres are in crisis owing to the lockdown. The Old Vic – which receives no government funding – warned last week that it is only hanging on by a thread. But even so, there as elsewhere, the show goes on.

Every Thursday, via YouTube,

The Old Vic has been showing one of the monologues from its 2018 series celebrating the NHS; it has commissioned a new monologue by Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo to mark the current moment, to be released on 5 July (oldvictheatre.com). The NHS is a beneficiary of money raised by Soho Theatre’s sellout production of the original

Fleabag one-woman show, performed by Phoebe WallerBridge and now available to rent online (ondemand. sohotheatre.com).

Also on Thursdays, at 7pm, the National Theatre is streaming past NT Live hits via YouTube, which are then available for a week thereafter. The political drama This House is on 28 May, followed by Coriolanus, with Tom Hiddleston in the title role, on 4 June. It has also rallied the likes of Simon Callow and Tamsin Greig to take part in the National Theatre at Home Quiz,

on YouTube from 25 May (nationaltheatre.org.uk).

Dismayed by the number of productions forced to close mid-run, actor Bertie Carvel came up with the Lockdown

Theatre Festival, which will see four cancelled works from different theatres – including Rockets and Blue Lights at Manchester’s Royal Exchange – reimagined as radio plays, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 on 13-14 June. From the Royal Court, Caretaker is an “intriguing installation” by Hester Chillingworth that shows a live feed of the theatre’s empty stage, with intermittent audio messages of hope (Guardian). The Royal Court’s production of the darkly shocking Cyprus

Avenue is also available online until 31 May (royalcourttheatre.com).

And for younger audiences (aged three to eight), there are three new digital works from

The Unicorn Theatre, based on last year’s Anansi the Spider, showing on Saturday mornings at 11am, from 30 May (unicorntheatre.com).