Reports in two newspapers on the weekend have suggested that the government is possibly preparing to relax social distancing rules in theatres in England.

It follows an article published in 'The Mail on Sunday' by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden in in which he said that "mass indoor events are now in my sights...we need to start filling seats in much larger numbers — not just for the audiences, not just for the venues and livelihoods who depend on them, but for the entire urban economy, too."

Within weeks

Meanwhile, 'The Sunday Times' said that government sources had told them that "theatres and sports stadiums will be allowed to open without social distancing within weeks" — with an indicated date of 1st November or even earlier.

It stated that, "direction has been given at a very senior level to work at extreme pace on this. The PM is keen on making rapid progress".

It is understood that one idea idea being mooted involved theatres and restaurants teaming up to provide, "cut-price deals on Mondays, so those with a ticket that day could save on the cost of their pre or post-theatre meal."

Now in sights

In the 'Mail on Sunday' article, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden stated that although there was no concrete time scale, "mass indoor events are now in my sights" and that he was aiming "to bring back some of the magic of theatre for families this Christmas" and hoping "to share more progress soon".

Operation Sleeping Beauty he wrote would "...get audiences back into our venues in much larger numbers" and that "we're going to have to innovate and be bold to save the things we love."

As an example of the bold approach he stated: "When public health experts were concerned about the return of live performances of singers and wind and brass players, saying they were potentially too high-risk without extended social distancing, I sought a second opinion.

We funded a scientific study to examine the transmission risks associated with singing or playing those instruments.

When the study showed those activities posed no higher risk than shouting or speaking, we scrapped the extra restrictions and performers were back on stage together within days. A three-metre distance became one metre-with-mitigation overnight."

Operation Moonshot

It is understood that the government is aiming for mass testing in the next few months with theatres and sporting arenas being the "key beneficiaries" of 'Operation Moonshot', which aims to test up to four million people a day for the coronavirus using new saliva tests that give results in minute.

However, he did state that "we cannot guarantee plain sailing, and as with any part of reopening after lockdown, we cannot guarantee zero risk".

mass indoor events are now in my sights...we need to start filling seats in much larger numbers — not just for the audiences, not just for the venues and livelihoods who depend on them, but for the entire urban economy, tooOliver Dowden

World beating?

Critics meanwhile were keen to point out that no tangible policies has yet been announced and that the arts sector was yet to receive the full benefit of the £1.57 billion "world beating" rescue package which will not be distributed until next month for smaller organisations and December for larger ones.

It was also pointed out that the majority of venues had already cancelled events and performances until the end of the year and beyond.

Huge problems would be faced with trying to quickly impose re-opening plans that would require extended periods of rehearsal planning and casting, as well as staff training and rehiring following redundancies and furloughing.

Pantomime season

Many on social media found it rather pertinent that 'The Sunday Times' stated that "Ministers want the plans in place before the winter pantomime season"- especially given the amount of laughable U-turns in policy decisions, mishaps and mistakes that they have presented to potential theatre audiences in recent months.