Four of London's leading pantomimes cancelled amid reopening uncertainty

Oh no they won't: Four of London's main pantos, including Theatre Royal Stratford East, won't run this year
Scott Rylander
Zoe Paskett10 August 2020

Four of London’s biggest pantomimes have been cancelled due to the uncertainty over when theatres will reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, Hackney Empire, Theatre Royal Stratford East and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch today made the “desperately sad” announcement together.

They said that “the continued uncertainty of government guidelines for restarting public performances” led to the “inevitable decision” to postpone productions to 2021.

This will come as a blow to communities where pantomime is a staple of the festive season, say the theatres’ leaders, as well as the 285 freelance artists and staff. It will also carve out a further significant hole in the theatres’ annual budgets. More than 145,000 people attended the four pantos last year, including 40,500 children, many of whom were visiting for the first time.

Actor Clive Rowe, who has played the Hackney pantomime dame 13 times, said it is a “highlight of my year”, adding: “It’s a terrible loss to the community. There’s going to be a big hole in Christmas and, tied into what’s happening anyway with Covid, it leaves me very, very sad.”

Robert Workman Photographer

Theatre Royal Stratford East executive director Eleanor Lang said: "Newham has been pretty badly hit by Covid – it would have been a really brilliant moment of uplift and it feels difficult not to have that."

Artistic director of the Lyric, Rachel O’Riordan said: “We need to start preparing to make the pantomime now, and we can’t do that without having clarity.” Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch artistic director Douglas Rintoul said he would have to start bringing staff off furlough now to get the show prepared, which is a “difficult commitment to make at this point”.

A date for reopening without social distancing wouldn’t be given until November “at the earliest”, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has confirmed. All four theatres agree that it is not feasible to put on a panto under these circumstances.

The resident Hornchurch dame John Barr said that it would ruin the spirit of the show: “I'm right down there, picking on a bloke, sitting on his lap, kissing his bald head, shaking his hand – I can't do any of that.”

Last year, trade association UK Theatre said that ticket income from its member theatres’ pantomimes grossed more than £60 million.

The pantomime alone accounts for 30 per cent of the Lyric’s yearly income from productions, says Ms O’Riordan, with Hackney Empire artistic director Yamin Choudhury adding that much of the money they make is reinvested not only into productions, but community projects and participation.

He worries about the knock-on effects beyond financial implications: “Panto is an incredible tool for diversifying, both onstage and off. As a sector, we're going to have to double and triple our efforts to ensure we're doing as much as we can to engage and diversify our audiences in the future, in terms of trying to emulate the incredible success that pantomimes have in being so broad in their appeal.”

All four pantomimes will return in 2021.

No announcement has been made on the London Palladium panto. However production company Qdos said they have no choice but to begin the consultation process “about the viability of each show”. Five Qdos pantos in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Belfast, Southampton and Birmingham last week announced they wouldn’t be running.

The entire theatre industry has been hit hard by the pandemic with some losing up to 90 per cent of income due to lack of box office sales. Last week, entertainment union Bectu released figures that around 5,000 theatre industry jobs have been lost due to coronavirus.

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