Trafalgar Theatre Productions Producer Matt Parritt tells Ensemble how the production department has been adapting to the Covid-19 pandemic and talks about his hopes for the future.

It’s been a very strange few months in the production department. On 16 March the Government effectively closed the theatres when they said that people shouldn’t go to them – quite why it took them another week to close them officially is a discussion in itself – and it threw the production team in at the deep end as we worked quickly to close down On Blueberry Hill and One Jewish Boy in Trafalgar Studios, The King and I on its UK Tour as well as working with the National Theatre to get the full War Horse company home safely from Perth.

It turns out that “un-producing” is just as complex as producing itself and the whole team worked incredibly hard to get cast and crews home safely as well as ensuring all the sets, costumes and props were packed up and put into storage. To put it in context The King and I production travels in seven full size lorries between venues – with huge set pieces and thousands of pieces of costumes, wigs and props – and is a big logistical operation that had to be rearranged on about 12 hours’ notice at the time when every theatre production in the country was doing the same thing. Our General Management and Technical teams did an absolutely sterling job in very tough conditions. Once everyone was home safely the next job was to close up the finances and accounts for each show – trying to salvage as much as possible from what became much shorter runs than anticipated.

As we went into April it became clear that sadly Covid-19 was going to be with us for some time and, in line with other group companies, the majority of our production team at The Strand unfortunately went into furlough. For those still working the focus changed to a strange state of trying to plan for constantly shifting re-opening dates. We know that audiences – not to mention our actors, crews, front of house teams and the whole production team – are desperate to get back into theatres as soon as they can, but clearly this needs to be when it is safe to do so.

However, most shows take months of planning before they open and as we still do not have clear re-opening dates we have to plan our most popular shows like Rocky Horror, The King and I and the re-opening of Trafalgar Studios with a number of different dates on hold with venues, creative teams and all the people involved in pre-production. We are also working on a big new musical for summer 2021 at the Barbican and are currently working hard to secure a starry cast and all the necessary financing partners. Watch this space for announcements as soon as we can!

I am sure many of you will have seen the media campaign from famous faces in the industry over the past few weeks and Howard, Rosemary and Jonathan have been taking part in regular industry meetings and briefings to lobby the government for the support and guidance that is desperately needed. We are waiting for more detail about the latest government Arts rescue package, but are also watching developments abroad to see if there are things we can learn from countries further ahead than the UK. For example, The Phantom of the Opera continues to play to busy audiences in South Korea by carrying out temperature checks on the door and face masks for ushers and audience members. I am sure that some of these methods will need to be used in the UK, at least in the short term, if we are to get theatres running again soon. Fingers crossed that we will begin to get some clarity soon and go back to doing some actual real-life theatre!