Twenty Twenty Vision

So we got all the money everybody was screaming for. Probably more than we asked for, and then with an irony that can't have escaped many of us, we were told "off you go, but no shows."

 At the time of writing it increasingly looks like the government has cancelled Christmas. Now we are witnessing the unedifying spectacle of Johnson absolutely shitting himself himself about the mistakes he's made.

 Only a few weeks ago it was "it'll be all over by Christmas." I think we've all heard that somewhere before. Now it seems like the government are coming to the recognition of the fact that our own particular Battle of the Somme is yet to come. and if that is the case, then there is no place for people gathering for entertainment.

The worrying thing about the large sum of money that the government granted the arts, is that most of it seems to be being spent on buildings rather than people. Sadly one hears every day of people who are leaving the industry. Graduates who have been thrown out onto a desolate wasteland of nothing, and more established travellers who have quite simply grown too tired of fighting the terrain and have decided to rest. Let alone the hundreds of theatre workers who have been forced into redundancy and are now trying to set themselves up as consultants.

 There are some theatres who are trying to bring entertainment back in some form or another. The Watermill, Newbury, where I spent so many happy summers during the late 80s and early 90s, has a hit on its hand  with "Sherlock Holmes" being performed in its gardens. Evidently that will be followed by a revival of the musical "Camelot", something I'm hoping to be able to get to see early next month. But they're doing it properly. Actors and audience socially distanced. Audience sat at tables, and an audience capacity that probably isn't raking it in for the theatre in financial terms, but does leave the audience feeling safe.

My partner, Richard, who is much keener than I am to get out to theatre again ,visited the Eagle Theatre in Kennington on Monday night for a preview of "Fanny and Stella".  He'd gone along as a guest and was told that the group would be sitting at a table. Imagine his horror to find that no social distancing was in place and they were sat in rows packed in a pub garden. More horror to follow. Actors within two feet of the front row was singing at them loudly. According to Oliver Dowden, that renders them as virus deodorant cans on legs.

 One fully understands the desire of fringe theatres to get back to work. I am patron of the Hope Theatre in Islington and we'd love to see an audience in our building, but we will not flout the rules in order to achieve it. If the people who want to come back to the theatre immediately don't feel safe when they do, they will not return. It will take a long time for someone as nervous as myself to set foot in an auditorium again, but there are people who are much keener. This eagerness must not be exploited.

We know it's difficult, but this is an unprecedented situation. The virus has not gone away. It's just having a scene or two off.

It seems that television is faring a little better.  Just as the level of "let's celebrate that episode of EastEnders that was once shown on a Thursday 14 years ago and wasn't really very good" programmes is becoming unbearable,  there is good news that filming has started again on some soaps and new series. And of course this means that the self tape is coming into its own. I had lunch with a friend on Monday who did eight in the last week. The demand on my workbook hasn't been quite so high, but it's been great to record a couple over the last ten days. They may result in nothing, but they do give me a feeling that there is life outside.

I'm dragging myself through the last 5000 words of the first draft of my new book and then it will be a short break and back to the beginning to try and actually make it make sense. Plans are moving ahead for the virtual conference that I am directing in September,  and instead of five days in Majorca we've even booked a boat on the broads at the beginning of next month.  Possibly we'd have had more fun if we'd booked some broads on a boat (Very old joke specially exhumed for the occasion), but at least it's another of those things to look forward to. And those I've found are what are keeping me going.