If social distancing rules for theatres are not relaxed soon Plymouth’s under-threat Theatre Royal has until late November before it will have to take further action to ensure its survival, its chief executive says.
Adrian Vinken, boss of the UK’s largest regional theatre, said it is not economically viable to open its main Lyric auditorium under the current restrictions.
The theatre put 100 jobs at risk in June 2020 after the coronavirus lockdown wiped out income, but was rescued by an £806,000 lifeline grant from the Arts Council in July.
Mr Vinken said at the time that this cash bought the venue “vital extra time” but now says hard decisions will have to be made before the end of the year if audiences can’t return.
He has said the Arts Council bailout, part of a £1.57billion survival package for the cultural sector, would help “bridge the gap” between the end of the Job Retention furlough scheme, at the end of October, and “the point at which we can open again and return to trading sustainably”.
But now he says: “If we get to late November and hear nothing we will have to look at further changes.” He would not be drawn on what those changes might entail.
The Government allowed theatres to reopen from August 15, following a five-month closure, but many, including Plymouth Theatre Royal, said it was not economically viable to operate with capacity slashed to 30% or 40%.
“At the moment we can’t open with social distancing, economically it would be impossible to open the Lyric,” Mr Vinken said, but added: “We are talking to the Government on a regular basis.”
“We have survived to this point and are still viable, our job is to keep it economically viable and with core staff, so we can reopen. That’s the ambition.”
In October, six London theatres will welcome audiences back after seven months of closure. The Nimax Group, owner of the Apollo, Duchess, Garrick, Lyric, Palace and Vaudeville theatres will run shows such as the musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and the comedy The Play that goes Wrong, after drawing up a 100-page guide to reopening safely.
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Theatre Royal Plymouth is selling tickets for a live broadcast of Emma Rice’s critically-acclaimed musical adaptation of Romantics Anonymous, performed at Bristol Old Vic on September 24.
And Mr Vinken said further experimentation may be on the cards, saying; “We are talking to artists and creatives about different kinds of performances, but it won’t be with what people are historically used to.”
However, the theatre is selling tickets for shows in 2021, in anticipation of a return to normality, and taking bookings for Hairspray, Waitress, Chicago, the Da Vinci Code and Strictly Ballroom.
But while it is advertising Aladdin for late 2021 and early 2022, Mr Vinken said there was little chance a panto could be scheduled for this year even if restrictions were removed – as there is just too little time to arrange it.
“It’s unlikely panto will open at this stage,” he said. “The lead in time we require, and our production partners require, to commit to this would be too long. It’s a big business and takes a lot of planning.”
