The fight to get the theatre world back on track continues

Can it really be only a week since culture secretary Oliver Dowden was talking about getting our theatres open again by Christmas?
Hopefully some smaller venues will indeed be regularly staging live theatre again but for many others it is looking increasingly like a dream too far.
Businesses are laying people off, shops are closing, restaurants - even after Eat Out to Help Out - are struggling and hotels are doing what it takes to survive. In places our city centres have almost become ghost towns. Andrew Lloyd Webber has even hinted that it may be necessary to stage shows abroad.
Yes, a week is a very long time indeed in the midst of a pandemic. But, let’s face it, the economy is in serious trouble and countless theatrical productions have been cancelled, postponed or put on the back-burner. This year’s panto season  - a lifeline for many theatres  - is dead and  cross the arts sector the priority is to try and work out a way of emerging from this mess.
Things don’t look good but, as I’ve said before, the creative arts is by its very nature, full of highly intelligent and creative people for whom thinking outside the proverbial box is second nature. If there is an answer, and I’m sure there is, it will be found. Meanwhile the government must engage not only with actors, musicians, artists and performers but producers and technicians to help get our theatres back on track at the heart of whatever form the 'new normal' may take
At Clive Conway Productions we are determined to get back to staging our signature shows. Watch this space and check the websites of any productions you are interested in for new information.