This is a vulnerable moment for theatre, says Barney Norris, but it's also a once in a generation opportunity to provide a traumatised nation with exactly what we need.
For as long as it takes us to come through this, then, the theatres are closed. As in many other industries that disappeared more or less overnight as a result of the coronavirus, this has had an immediate, catastrophic impact on thousands of people. It feels slightly uncomfortable for me as a playwright to outline this in too much detail — to work in theatre, after all, is to accept that sometimes you’ll be out of a job, to commit to an uncertain way of living. But it’s a fact that many are now struggling to pay their bills; many don’t know how they’re going to come back from this. Not least because, while it’s too soon to know what the theatre’s going to look like when it returns, it seems unlikely it will look like it did... Keep reading on UnHerd
For as long as it takes us to come through this, then, the theatres are closed. As in many other industries that disappeared more or less overnight as a result of the coronavirus, this has had an immediate, catastrophic impact on thousands of people. It feels slightly uncomfortable for me as a playwright to outline this in too much detail — to work in theatre, after all, is to accept that sometimes you’ll be out of a job, to commit to an uncertain way of living. But it’s a fact that many are now struggling to pay their bills; many don’t know how they’re going to come back from this. Not least because, while it’s too soon to know what the theatre’s going to look like when it returns, it seems unlikely it will look like it did... Keep reading on UnHerd