Task force to reopen this region’s theatres is badly needed

Sheffield did host the World Snooker Championships - but spectators were permitted for only three days. What are the lessons?

LIKE THE rest of the country, the theatre and arts is continuing to face its darkest hour since the Second World War and there were appeals at Prime Minister’s Questions for the Government to do more to help this sector.

It also explains why the University of Sheffield is to spearhead new academic research into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown – and use data from venues on audience numbers, and lost income, to develop a new strategy for an industry worth £111bn to the national economy.

A truly eyewatering number, what theatres – and other performing arts venues – need is both inspiration, and assistance, now so work can resume on those productions which contribute so much to the UK’s cultural vitality.

Unlike, say, the upper echelons of professional sport that have a financial safety net in the form of TV broadcasting contracts, theatres have no such a lifeline and many venues have already closed for good as a result of this crisis.

Empty streets have characterised London's West End, and main theatre district, since the lockdown.

Yet, rather than waiting for academics to complete a piece of work where the conclusions will come as little surprise, a task force needs to be set up to work out how best to reopen venues as quickly, and expeditiously, as possible, and learning from the experience of Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre when it hosted the World Snooker Championships in front of a much reduced live audience on the opening day, and then for the two-day final.

It is also in the Government’s best interests to facilitate such an exercise if it wants the whole economy to take advantage of the £2bn Kickstart scheme aimed at helping young people into work. Over to you, Ministers.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson

Task force to reopen this region’s theatres is badly needed – The Yorkshire Post says

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