London’s Theatres to Reopen after lockdown

Theatres all around the country closed their curtains on March 16 when the first lockdown hit, now with areas being in tier 2 of the regulations, theatres are able to safely open.

Previously London was in Tier 2 before the recent lockdown, (this meant that some socially distanced shows could go ahead, however they mostly not did not include an in person audience) under the new tier system venues will have their audience members cut down by half or 1000 people, depending on whichever is a lower amount.

The recent lockdown ended on December 2, it will be revaluated from December 16 with changes to be made every fortnight.

During these times some shows have been live streaming their performances socially distanced to an audience.

Plays such as Lungs and Three Kings were live streamed from The Old Vic in London, being a two-person play (Lungs, Matt Smith and Claire Foy) to one person with Three Kings with Andrew Scott.

One show in particular that has had a successful live stream run is Fiver the Musical, written and produced by Alex James Ellison and Tom Lees, which ran from September 27th to 28th doing three shows.

After a sold out run at the Southwark Playhouse back in July 2019. The show is based on the life of a five-pound note and the journey it takes round other people’s lives.

Performer and writer of Fiver Alex James Ellison said that it was an amazing experience to put the show on again, despite this he said “It wasn’t as good as having an audience there with us – the vibe of an audience gives us adrenaline and we react to that so missing them was a shame.”

Fiver is an interactive show where Ellison’s character is the narrator as well as a busker.

With shows beginning to start open again there does bring in some risk. Most performances have been postponed till sometime in 2021, this is the same with concerts.

“It’s always been a risk for producers to open shows and now the risks are gonna be even more so they need to be greeted with support by audiences so they can stay open.” said Ellison.

The industry will be able to bounce back since being impacted from the coronavirus pandemic but will need all the support to keep it up and running.