How will theatre function when the lockdown ends?

I think that there's a particular problem with theatre because it's both one of the highest-risk environments and also one of the lowest concerns for the majority of people, so when it comes to getting it back up and running it's going to be right down at the bottom of the list. I don't want to give the impression that my last comment means I think we're going to be in total lockdown for many months; it's more that things will need to be opened up in stages according to how easy it is to keep transmission rates down and theatre is going to be one of the last things to return.

I agree that we can't carry on the way we are right now for any great length of time. Once the number of infections in the wild is low enough we can start to reopen most shops with the same two-metre distances rules currently applied to supermarkets, I can see restaurants opening with reduced capacity and precautions in place for staff, and some office workers will be able to start returning to the office so long as others stay home. But until we have a vaccine or a cure the disease won't have gone away. It went from 13 victims to 143,000 in two months and it will do the same all over again if we give it the chance, so as we open things up again we need to make sure it never gets that chance.

And I don't see any way that theatres can operate in that environment, what with their huge staffing costs meaning they need to run at around 60% capacity just to break even. Unless there's some breakthrough with cheap and reliable virus-blocking masks or ultra-accurate tests, theatre is going to have to wait.

That's unlikely to happen - no ticket or bag checks, limited front of house staff, restricted drink or cafe, another big income source for venues lost etc.? This is a virus that travels 2m or more just by talking and breathing. Everyone on this site loves theatre but it isn't worth dying for, or endangering life for.

You can check a bag and check a ticket without physically touching it.

I do wonder how places can be expected to open at limited capacity given how little money they will make? Restaurants, theaters, cafes etc struggle to go into profit as it is.

I wonder if for example you could have a half full house and sell reduced price tickets to watch a livestream of the production at home? Say £25 to sit in the theatre, £10 to watch at home?

I have had severe OCD for many years so am very conscious about contact when I'm out and about. This is a virus that travels 2m and then hangs around in the air. It can even piggy-back on pollution particles. Not handing over a ticket as you walk through the narrow door into the average British theatre space isn't going to keep you or the usher that much safer.

Absolutely, and the biggest question at the minute is at what point do we tip it back to equilibrium. At the minute it is 100% on the side of measures to combat coronavirus and 0% on the side of every other health condition on the planet and the economy...

...or at least that is what it feels like to many I suspect, and certainly to many people I know, and that is part of the problem. That is unsustainable.

I'm going to be brutally honest about my own experience now as I'm getting very frustrated by the tunnel vision of some people on here (not you) and the idea that this is only about coronavirus. It isn't.

I'm just about managing to control my mental health at the minute, but it's getting more difficult as the weeks of isolation go on, and I don't know how much longer I will last before I have to ask for help and undo all of the good work I've done over the past couple of years in getting to a place where I don't need it. I am lucky that I have never been so low as to have suicidal thoughts, but many are worse off that me. Many people who aren't self-isolating alone really don't understand the mental health impact of all of this - yes, some will be happy they can hide away from it all, but many of us aren't wired like that, or at least need human contact at least some of the time, when we choose. To go without through no choice of your own isn't normal, it isn't healthy. If there are many more like me, and I suspect there are from my own experience and people I know, then the seesaw needs to tip soon or there will be a massive strain on mental health resources that already couldn't cope before the crisis.

Do I want us to find a cure/vaccine and prevent unnecessary deaths? Of course, but unnecessary deaths don't just come from coronavirus, so we need to look at the bigger picture both in terms of avoiding unnecessary victims and preserving resources.

That will of course involve an element of choice, but no-one has ever been forced to go to the theatre, cinema, restaurants etc so in that respect it will be nothing new, just added space between tables or empty seats. Everyone can then choose their risk in light of their own personal circumstances.

I can sympathise with those who are struggling. I'm struggling. Thanks to my ASD I'm self-harming like you would not believe at the moment. Multiple breakdowns a day are no fun. And it's now nearly two months since I had a conversation with another human being. There are loads of people I was acquainted with I can't contact and I have no idea how they're doing and I might never see them again. I rarely get more than three hours sleep a night over this.

But we know from history that in the event of a pandemic if restrictions are relaxed too early you just end up going through it all again. Yes, there will be mental health issues, and I'm getting increasingly angry that some people — most notably the police — are concentrating on enforcing the government's guidance rather than the purpose behind the guidance and are clamping down on anyone who is indulging in perfectly safe activities that are no risk to anyone instead of people who are increasing the risk. Mental health matters. But half a million deaths matter too, and that won't be the end of it. That's just the first pass.

The good news is that we're over the worst of it. There's a new emergency hospital in Birmingham that might never be needed because the spread and occurrence of serious cases has fallen, and that's great. But we're only in this position because the measures we have in place are working. If we stop now and remove those measures we'll just have to go through it all again in a couple of months.

Everyone wants to be able to get back to normal before there's a vaccine or cure while somehow avoiding having hundreds of thousands of deaths but that's not one of the options reality has given us.

Thank you for this. I feel exactly the same. I actually never had mental health issues before but since this lockdown I’ve started to develop some. I had a full blown panic attack last week. I’ve never experienced anything like this. I live alone about an hour drive away from friends and family. It was required from me to move here for work and that wasn’t really a problem as I own a car and could always go and see my friends and family whenever I liked. I also used to travel a lot and go to the theatre to escape the dull every day work life.
Now I’m basically locked away miles from everyone. I never liked talking on the phone so that doesn't help me. I miss physical contact. I miss just meeting friends for dinner, to go shopping or see a show. I miss hopping on a plane to London.
What scares me the most is that I don’t know when anything like that will be possible again. And every single day they paint new disaster scenarios on the news (over here daily infections have been dropping constantly but there’s never good news).
I‘m back at the office now. We have to do business as usual. But there’s nothing I can look forward to anymore. I’ve got no choice but to work and then go home. Every single day.
I really don’t know how long I can keep on doing this.

I really hope we‘ll find a way to get some kind of „normality“ back soon. I don’t believe in a vaccine. It would take years until everyone got a dose. So we either find a cure or we will implement measures to live with it.
I understand that theatres pose a huge risk at the moment and I have kind of accepted that I won’t be going to see a show in a long time. But life has to go on. At least for me it has to, or I‘m going to get real big problems pretty soon.

For those that are missing watching theatre I would really recommend trying some of the streamed theatre options out there if you haven't already. There is a thread in this very forum collating them and there are a lot out there. I have the good fortune to still be working and I am struggling to fit them all in. Some are obviously better than others but the ones that were filmed with the intention of releasing them e.g. broadcast to cinema's rather than the archive recordings are very good and certainly keep me distracted.

Stay safe, look after yourself and don't be afraid to ask for help.

I try to watch streaming theatre on my TV via the YouTube app on the Roku or my Switch. It's a lot more enjoyable that way.