How will theatre function when the lockdown ends?

An insight into how Korea are managing. I have no idea if this would be implemented for West End but who knows?

A number of theatres are testing the reception of a 'recovery levy' i.e. a charge on the ticket/transaction to recuperate losses.

Whilst, I understand the plight of theatres and venues, most transactions already include restoration fees, processing tax and a whole host of other transaction charges. Is another charge on top of this really the way to go? Penalise the customer?

Should freelance actors, musicians, technical staff charge the production a recovery charge?
Should coffee shops, bars, restaurants apply a surcharge to cover the time they were closed?
And then what if hotels and transportation raise their prices to make up for lost income too?

We're all in this together and whilst I recognise that businesses will want to recoup costs, if in reality every business out there bumps their prices or adds a recovery charge to make up for the lost takings, the general public are going to be hit really hard. The sad fact is that a lot of people will be forced to reconsider their outgoings and restrict it to necessary spending only, of which leisure trips to theatre are not.

Just a little Friday discussion. Would you be happy with a recovery levy on your ticket?

It's a difficult question with no easy answers, though no doubt social media will be filled with people who are convinced that their easy answer is the only right one.

I was thinking about this in more general terms the other day. Usually, when something goes wrong there's somebody somewhere who is the most responsible for the situation and who can legitimately and legally be held accountable. It's morally valid for everyone else to look at the situation from an angle of "I have done nothing wrong so I shouldn't suffer a loss over this". It's how people naturally think. It's someone else's duty to bear the suffering so I don't have to.

The pandemic has completely upset this way of thinking because nobody did anything wrong. There's nobody upstream we can legitimately kick our grievances to. We're all blameless. But everyone is still stuck in the mindset of "Someone must pay, but it mustn't be me", and that's not going to work this time. We really are all in this together, and we really are all going to have to share the cost.

And I think it's fair that businesses pass on some of their accumulated costs to the public. The many people who have started working from home are saving on their travel costs and we're all saving on not going out and not buying things, but that money would have paid for people's salaries and at some point some of that money needs to go where it should have gone. I'm saving around £300 a month but that's not free money. It's leaving a dent in someone else's finances, and somewhere down the line things will need to be rebalanced.

TBO I just imagine capitalism and price being proportional to demand will prevail - will just be dynamic pricing in action as per the last decade or so.

Producers will no doubt slap this on. And if people don't buy (in sufficient quantities) tickets prices will come down.
I guess quite what demand will be when we come back is currently an unknown.

As for what is morally right? Who knows. But I agree we are all in this together.

I think ultimately I have found the theories of prices going up as convincing as the ones that they'll come down - I think now maybe they will emerge as much the same!

I'd be happy if it were voluntary - I know many theatres are sending emails out re donations but this could be something on the ticket purchase page so everyone has the choice. Some people would possibly pay more than the theatre would have added, some less - I'd probably do it for my favourite theatres or local ones, not necessarily for all.

Not everyone has extra cash, my basic covers basic bills but overtime covers the car costs, gifts for friends and theatre, travel etc so the amount I'm not spending on commuting is now covering the car costs such as insurance but nothing left over so donations will have to be very carefully considered for quite some time in my case.

I have said this elsewhere but big theatres will be fine; if they don't have the cash reserves then they will have the support of generous benefactors.
We are already seeing big names and big shows get announced, primarily for advance sales, but this won't end in 2021. It cannot. I think it might 2023-2024 before we go back to schedule expected. There won't be the time or interest for experiments and I suspect any inroads regarding theatre diversity from who is on the stage to who is in the audience will all but disappear temporarily.

A lot of theatres won't come back from this, particularly fringe and pub theatres. They cannot attract the names and shows to build up cash flow and if they rely on donations then this could change artistic policy.

I think social distancing will be enforced through fewer tickets at higher prices

I'd gladly pay a little extra to support smaller independents. The West End however, not a chance.

Your post was probably just caught up in the melee showgirl. Sometimes it’s quicker and easier to remove all posts than try and dissect a thread and tease out the problems ones.

Perhaps if theatre starts small some of the bigger names could be involved with the smaller fringe/off west end/pub theatres to help the whole industry start up again. Many of them have links to those theatres in various ways and it would help publicise them opening up again. I remember Francesca Annis being involved with the new format Bush Theatre so why not others getting involved, let's face it no matter how much we all speculate this is a unique situation so there could be many surprise twists and turns ahead of us.

That could be tempered by just one or two names and the rest being a mix of less known and emerging I suppose. The names really would be just to kickstart it all again in order to maintain the spaces for the emerging artists of the future - would just need careful and clear advertising. There will always be critics whatever happens, it remains to be seen whether those people consider keeping places going is of true importance and thus worth having a name or two helping to do that or would rather see them close I guess

Looking more than likely the wearing of face masks will become mandatory in confined if not all public spaces, not sure how effective but does give the impression of behavioural change.

Looking on Amazon, lead times can be excessive so not sure how all of us will be able to comply in the short-term.