Rural touring could offer the quickest route out of lockdown

While the theatre sector is pondering when it might reopen, how it might do so, and the challenge of enticing theatregoers back into buildings that were never designed with social distancing in mind, one small solution might be right under its nose. Go out into your community rather than expecting them to come to you.

In a recent interview, Alan Cumming spoke for many theatregoers when he declared that “until there’s a vaccine, I don’t think people will be really comfortable sitting in a room with 1,000 people right next to you, coughing”. But what if it wasn’t 1,000 strangers sitting next to you but a small number of friends and neighbours who you knew well – maybe in a village hall or local library or community centre, a place that you thought of as a home from home?

Last week’s Indigo After the Interval survey, looking at when audiences might return to live events, confirms widespread unease. It does not make for optimistic reading for live events and theatre.

The collapse in ticket revenues at theatres across the country has been felt by all and the bad news is that it may continue. Only 20% of audiences would return to entertainment venues “just because they are open again”. That falls to 15% among the over-65s. Many will stay away until they feel safer and for that to happen, 75% want to ensure they avoid long queues and 66% would like to see distanced seating. That’s before they’ve even had to brave public transport to get to the theatre.

Perhaps, in time, theatre and audiences will adjust to a new normal

This rather suggests that theatre is going to have to think very hard about how it will present live performance post-lockdown unless it can get to the levels of tracing and testing in South Korea – outlined in producer Richard Jordan’s recent column – that have kept some venues open there.

Perhaps, in time, theatre and audiences will adjust to a new normal, and a vaccine becoming available over the next year would be a game-changer. But in the meantime, as Alistair Smith observed in his Editor’s View last week: “It’s quite likely that theatre and its workforce will require support, through extended government subsidy, after many other industries have returned to something resembling normal.”

It’s crucial that the government understands this and also that it will not only be high-profile buildings and Arts Council England’s national portfolio organisations that will require ongoing support but also theatre’s army of freelancers, increasing numbers of whom are seriously wondering if they have any future in the industry.

Reimagining how you might present theatre will be tricky in the West End and more traditional venues, but there is one small but significant part of the industry that may be able to steal a march once the government gives the go ahead for larger gatherings: rural touring.