Reports state social distancing in theatres could be abolished ‘within weeks’

According to The Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Times today, promising progress is being made in order to get theatres back on their feet again without social distancing required.

In the Mail on Sunday piece, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has revealed details of his new initiative, Operation Sleeping Beauty. In the article penned by himself, he said: "mass indoor events are now in my sights...we need to start filling seats in much larger numbers – not just for the audiences, not just for the venues and livelihoods who depend on them, but for the entire urban economy, too."

He goes on to mention that the testing procedures will be key to reopening spaces minus social distancing: "Testing is the short-term key until we find a working vaccine. We're making exciting advances in quick turnaround testing, where on-the-day coronavirus tests could give people who test negative a pass to visit the theatre that evening".

In this article, no time scale is given but he does share hope that some theatre will be back in time for the festive season this year. Unfortunately however, so many Christmas shows and pantomimes have already been cancelled/postponed so this could be viewed as too little too late for 2020.

The piece in The Sunday Times, based on reports by government sources and senior officials, generally echoes Dowden’s comments but is a little more specific by saying: "theatres and sports stadiums will be allowed to open without social distancing within weeks."

It is said that these large-scale venues will become part of the government’s Operation Moonshot programme, whereby up to four million people per day will be tested for Covid-19 with results given within minutes.

In previous interviews, Dowden stated that no further information regarding social distancing would be given until 1 November at the earliest but this article implies that this date may be brought forward.

Whilst this is all positive, the lack of specificity still leaves many producers/chief executives in limbo about reopening their shows and venues.

Let’s hope more information is given sooner rather than later.