When will the show go on?
I’ve not written anything about the global pandemic.
I found it really stressful at the start, but as we enter the 8th week of “isolation” in our house, I thought it was about time I wrote something about it.
As time has gone on, and Wales, where I live, has just entered a 3rd period of lockdown, taking us to the end of May under “Stay at Home” restrictions, I’ve got to grips with my coping mechanisms.
Everywhere, all around the world, we have been impacted by this pandemic. I think it’s important to stop and consider this for a moment. This is a time that will taught in history lessons in the future. The time when global civilisation virtually ground to a halt over night. It’s extraordinary. Scary, but extraordinary.
What has really struck me in the last 7 weeks or so that I’ve been at home, is how much I love what I do for a living. I am not blind to the fact that I am EXTREMELY fortunate. My work takes me all over the world under normal circumstances. I get to meet and talk to people from all walks of life, and all kinds of backgrounds. It’s a great privilege and I try not to take it for granted.
I’m also extremely lucky that having my entire work schedule for the majority of the year so far cancelled, or at least postponed hasn’t left us struggling too much to make ends meet. I’m careful with money (some would say paranoid), not so many years ago I landed myself in a vast amount of debt, and since getting on top of that, I’m super careful about spending, saving and putting aside.
But I know that people everywhere ARE struggling, and the worry and stress that comes with financial instability is as bad for your health and anything else we’re facing at the moment.
The industry I work in is on its knees right now. Live entertainment relies predominantly on one thing more than anything else. An audience.
Be it in a theatre or at a convention, live entertainment requires people to be present to experience it.
Just stop and think for a second about how you would feel if you were to go and sit in a theatre with upwards of 500 strangers around you for 2+ hours tonight. I can’t imagine anything I want to do MORE - I miss it SO much. BUT I also can’t imagine anything I’d want to do LESS. I’m managing fortnightly trips to the supermarket and find that stressful enough. I can’t even begin to consider choosing to spend time in a confined space like a theatre again any time soon, and that breaks my heart.
In this new way of living, one thing has become clear to me. HOW MUCH we rely on entertainment to get us through. There’s a hint of “blitz spirit” about the UK at the moment. Not something I’m keen on, the war analogies bother me, but that’s an entirely different blog post that I probably won’t write! We’re relying on film, tv, live streams and the like to distract us, to engage us more than ever. Leaving the house, we are told, is dangerous and should be approached with constant vigilance. Stay home (or alert, or whatever it is this week) and stay safe. Thank God for streaming services! Could you imagine doing this in the 90s before we had access to the internet at our beck and call?
The theatres and cinemas are shut. The clubs, the pubs, the concert halls, the music venues. All closed. But the internet is open. I’ve found it quite overwhelming to see how immediately the entertainment sector has embraced new ways of doing what we do. Bringing performances into your homes.
It’s great that all of a sudden we have access to all these amazing people, performances and resources at our finger tips. BUT it scares me a little at the same time.
We’re giving and being given the vast majority of this entertainment for free. It’s right there, on Youtube. On Netflix, or Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, BBC, all over the place. Access to performances that you’d pay to see in the theatre are right there for free (or included in a subscription you’re already paying for).
What happens, then, when the theatres open again and we’re asked to pay for a ticket? For something we’ve been given for free, essentially, for the last few months? It does concern me that it might be a while before we see audiences back in our venues. After all, a lot of people have been out of work for the majority of the year so far. In the UK that has, to some extent been protected with government bailouts, so at least most people are still being paid something. But theatre is a luxury. Live entertainment of any kind is a luxury. Even in the world pre-Covid, live performance was an expensive hobby or an occasional treat.
When venues are eventually allowed to open again, it’s likely to be under very different circumstances to how they were before. Physical distancing is impossible in a sold out theatre, even in a 40% sold theatre there’s a line at the bar, there’s a line for the bathrooms. There’s a STRANGER sat next to you.
At best, theatres are going to be struggling and desperate for audiences to come back to them. At worst, they’re not going to be able to open. Some venues may never open again, and that is an enormous loss to us all.
So. If you can support your local live performance space, please please do. If you can donate something to the people who bring you a live streamed performance, or broadcast a performance of a play from their archive, you will be helping to give live entertainment and theatres a fighting chance.
Big Love
CwR xxx