Designers to wrap empty UK theatres with message of hope

The easing of coronavirus restrictions means that England’s theatres are permitted to reopen from 4 July, albeit without live performance. But many major UK venues are not in a position to open their doors yet. A new design project has been launched to wrap some of these empty buildings with a bright message of hope amid the industry’s deepening crisis.

The #scenechange project will see theatres in the UK and Ireland wrapped with pink barrier tape reading “Missing Live Theatre”. It has been organised by a community of designers who work in theatre and want to bring “joy and colour” to venues that currently stand empty, devoid of their usual hustle and bustle. “Theatres which are usually teeming with life feel stark and bleak,” they said, “some even shut away behind hazard tape to prevent them inadvertently being places of gathering.”

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The first building to be wrapped was the National Theatre on the South Bank in London, where casual staff in front of house and backstage positions were told on Friday that they are being let go. The NT has said it is unable to continue paying them beyond August due to the changes in the coronavirus job retention scheme, and added that staff roles are now at risk of redundancy.

Other theatres to be wrapped during the day on Friday include Manchester’s Royal Exchange, which predicted this week that it could make 65% of its permanent roles redundant; Theatre Royal Plymouth, where 100 jobs are at risk because of the Covid-19 shutdown; and Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum, which announced in May that it was entering “a period of hibernation to conserve the limited resource we have through the dark winter of Covid-19”. The Lyric in Belfast and the Sherman theatre in Cardiff will also be wrapped during the day on Friday, with further theatres taking part in the initiative later in July.

The project was created by the Scene/Change community, which has more than 1,000 members including leading set and costume designers such as Es Devlin, Bunny Christie, Rae Smith and Tom Piper. The community said that designers will play an essential role in “the transformation that will see theatres being reopened and reimagined” in the future. It aims to link theatres up with local designers for on-site installation of the pink barrier tape, which will remain around each theatre for up to a week before it is removed and reused on another theatre.

Matthew Warchus, the artistic director of the Old Vic in London, said he was delighted to support the campaign: “Theatres are the lifeblood of the communities in which they sit, buzzing day and night with people seeking solace, inspiration, escapism, fun and education. It is heartbreaking that these creative spaces, like our own beloved 202-year-old theatre, remain closed to all those who make theatre so special. Alongside those designers who created #scenechange, we hope this campaign will remind people of the joy of live theatre.”