David Tennant: British theatres need urgent help during coronavirus crisis – The Guardian

British theatre will need some form of government intervention during the coronavirus crisis before venues can reopen, the actor David Tennant has said.

Theatres closed abruptly in March and many in the industry fear they will not be able to reopen properly until 2021.

In an interview with this weeks Radio Times, Tennant said one of the biggest issues is about audience safety. Youre asking people to pay a lot of money to potentially have someone coughing into their packet of boiled sweets and infecting them, he said.

I dont know what the answer is yet. Its urgent, because the performing arts in this country dont exist with huge profit margins.

A handful of theatres, including the Nuffield in Southampton, have already gone bust and there are warnings that 70% of theatres will run out of money by the end of the year.

The West End producer Sonia Friedman has said the performing arts face the real possibility of complete obliteration without substantial government support, while the director Sam Mendes said an ecosystem this intricate and evolved cannot be rebuilt from scratch.

Tennant said some theatres were teetering. He added: Well need government intervention until theatres can safely reopen, and audiences are happy to go back.

The government has set up a cultural renewal taskforce to help map a course out of the lockdown, but arts leaders say the solution must involve investment.

The culture secretary Oliver Dowden said on Monday he was involved in intricate discussions with the Treasury and suggested a deal was almost done.

He told the London Evening Standard: I am not going to stand by and see our world-leading position in arts and culture destroyed.

Of course I want to get the money flowing, I am not going to let anyone down.

Tennant stars with Michael Sheen in a lockdown comedy for the BBC titled Staged, in which they play actors who had been due to open in a new West End production of Luigi Pirandellos Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Their director suggests they continue rehearsals through lockdown on Zoom. The show also features their real-life partners, Tennants wife, Georgia Moffett, and Sheens partner, Anna Lundberg, both actors.

Casting existing pairs of actor partners in shows is being discussed as a possible way of working within the rules of social distancing, and Tennant said he was in favour.

He said: It would be great. Wed have to all isolate together for rehearsals. And wed need a lot of childcare for when we were on stage.

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David Tennant: British theatres need urgent help during coronavirus crisis - The Guardian