Big tops are being built up across the UK. With sidewalls raised and seats spaced out, tented circuses are resuming summer tours. Heavy theatre doors, meanwhile, remain shut. But there’s a simple solution to opening up with socially distanced productions. Theatres should take to tents.

One has already had the imagination to move out. Norwich Theatre has teamed up with Norwich-based Lost in Translation circus to move its productions under canvas. Theatre and circus are sharing the programming. For six weeks over the summer, Lost in Translation’s Marybelle tent won’t only stage juggling, acrobatics and world-class Korean cradle, but also drama designed for the Norwich Playhouse stage.

If only more theatres looked beyond their buildings, they’d find the post-Covid-19 world a lot less worrying. Yet every day we read about a new proposed seating plan or air-filtering system being trialled in an Edwardian playhouse to enable safe, socially distanced theatre in a building designed for the opposite…

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