‘Hanging on by our fingertips’: theatres fear Omicron’s impact on festive season

With a surge in cancellations across the country, the new strain of Covid might be the biggest threat to the UK’s stage industry yet

It is the crucial season for theatres when families, schools and panto-lovers traditionally crowd into festive shows and fill venues’ coffers for the year ahead. But this winter, amid rising Covid case numbers and the spread of the Omicron variant, bookings are down and performances are being cancelled at the last minute – and at an alarming rate – due to Covid infections among cast and crew. Theatres have been left “in crisis mode”, “on a knife edge” and “terrified” of what the next weeks will bring.

The producer Kenny Wax, whose hits include the musical Six and the Goes Wrong series of comedies, told the Guardian that “the industry is probably in its most precarious position”, even after almost two years of uncertainty. On Wednesday, Sir Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the Bridge theatre in London, predicted on BBC Newsnight: “the three weeks of the year on which all live arts and entertainment businesses rely … will be a write-off”. Sarah Brigham, who runs Derby theatre, said that cast illnesses have left artistic directors around the country asking themselves with dread: “When am I going to have to walk on stage with a script?” Natalie Ibu, artistic director of Northern Stage in Newcastle, said: “What we don’t need is more uncertainty and mixed messages [from government] – that just feels like March 2020 all over again. We’ve come too far to find ourselves stuck in Groundhog Day.”

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