The threat to panto and the return of cinema

David Hutchinson has already made it clear how important financially the annual panto season is -perhaps even more this year given the lockdown closures.

The New Theatre’s latest proposed opening date is mid-November, with a soft opening for the theatre prior to the festive favourite running throughout December.

“Panto in earnest should kick off now,” he said. “We don’t just turn a button, open the doors and everyone comes back.

“Michael Harrison , who runs Qdos, the biggest panto company in the world, has been very clear that the deadline for him is August 3 and I think a lot of us in the sector are kind of working to the same deadline.

“And that £1.57bn becomes quite a different  thing with or without panto. Whether that is enough to sustain us and  and see us through  with or without panto, those are two very different  answers.

“So  again we just want to be part of the conversation  so we can build on that in terms of what do we need to do to make this building safe and ready to open.

“A lot of people come into the building at the sane time and leave at the same time. And they go to the bar in the 15 minute interval. These are unique theatre , large mass gathering challenges and we want to  start planning now. We can have lots of hand sanitiser, do lots of extra  cleaning, all of those things we are committed to doing,  but we need a timeline that says do we have a panto this year ? Do we start investing in panto on August 3rd or do we not? And what are the repercussions?”

With no timeline on getting performers back on stage, Selladoor have explored other avenues to get people back in the building, including cinema.

“We have a lot of immediate challenges - in terms of how do we sustain buildings such as the New Theatre  and staff and how do we ensure we keep skills  in the buildings we run.

“What could we do here within the current guidelines (Selladoor has plans for outdoor events at one of its other theatre but that isn’t possible at the New Theatre)? 

“We are looking at cinema. We need to cover our costs but we also feel a real responsibility to get people into work.

“This is a big building  we should be operating at a big capacity, it offers a lot of jobs,  and all the businesses around here benefit from that.

“A lot of our staff had to be told down tools you have been furloughed you are not allowed to  work  and that was really alien to them - we are a sector  that wants to work, we are driven in that way.