Welcome to our bumper Christmas edition of Ensemble. I hope you’re all staying safe and keeping well.

We start with the incredibly disappointing news that London is to move into Tier 3 this week. The past few weeks had seen venues beginning to reopen with high levels of Covid-19 security, welcoming back enthusiastic, socially distanced audiences, so this is a devastating blow. However, as history has taught us many times before, our world-leading theatre industry will be back.

In 1642 civil war broke out in England between supporters of King Charles I and the Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell. Theatres were closed to prevent public disorder and remained closed for 18 years, causing considerable hardship to professional theatre performers, managers and writers.

Since the war, our industry has survived terrorist-led closures, periodic and often unexplainable slumps in business – usually in the summer months – power cuts and the consequences of structural collapse, but up until 2020 no prolonged closures.

In 2001, foot-and-mouth disease and then the terrorist attacks of September 11 caused a downturn in West End business. London suffered its own terrorist atrocity in 2005 and all performances at central London venues were cancelled on the day of the attacks – July 7 – with some 50 venues having to pull shows. At the time, I was President of the Society of London Theatre and was quoted as saying: “The London theatre industry has always been united in difficult times. Our message is clear to those who seek to destroy our freedom. In London’s West End: the show will go on.”

That message still resonates today. The show will go on. Last Tuesday proved to be an historic day in the UK. Dubbed “V Day” by the Health Secretary, the first doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine were administered to the public outside of a clinical trial. So as 2020 comes to a close, so begins the roll out of the biggest vaccine programme in history and hopefully the promise of a brighter, happier, healthier 2021.

We have lots to look forward to as a company and together we can build a more optimistic, successful future; the opening of Trafalgar Theatre, Chiswick Cinema and Theatre Royal Sydney, and new productions of Anything Goes, The Rocky Horror Show, Jersey Boys and Benefactors among just some of the highlights. A visit to the cinema or theatre will now be such a cherished experience and we will embrace these moments more than ever before.

We strongly felt that it was more important than ever to share an optimistic forward-thinking Christmas message with our industry friends and colleagues and you’ll soon receive a copy of the 2020 TE Christmas card in your inbox. Please feel free to forward it on to your contacts as this is a card for ALL TE companies to use.

Even though we’ve all been kept apart this year, I’ve been moved and impressed by how everyone has adapted to the on-going situation, shown support for colleagues and friends, and connected and communicated through endless Teams and Zoom calls. It was also lovely to hear the shared stories of our furloughed colleagues throughout the summer with the Furlough Diaries series. We continue that theme in this Christmas edition of Ensemble, as colleagues from around TE share their Reflections of 2020.

Thank you to every one of you for your continued commitment, sacrifice, resilience and hard work throughout this incredibly sad and difficult year. I’d like to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year. Here’s to better times ahead.

Warmest wishes
Rosemary