Streaming has helped theatres amid Covid-19 lockdowns, but will they cut their own throats with too many productions?

Streamed theatrical productions have become popular during the Covid-19 lockdown, some attracting millions of viewers

With theatres worried about surviving the year, streaming could still be the answer, although some worry too much of it could kill them off

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Matt Smith and Claire Foy during a socially distanced dress rehearsal of Lungs, currently streaming from The Old Vic Theatre in London. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 8:30pm, 30 Jun 2020Updated: 8:30pm, 30 Jun 2020

As a metaphor for the desperate position theatre has been put in by the coronavirus, Lungs is hard to beat. Over the weekend Claire Foy and Matt Smith stepped out onto a London stage to act in a socially distanced version of a hit play about how the world is going to hell in a handcart.

The Old Vic hopes 1,000 people a night will pay between £10 (US$12) and £65 to watch a live stream of the pair, who have not acted together since they set the small screen alight as the young Queen Elizabeth and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh in the Netflix series The Crown. The stage production will stream on Zoom until July 4.

Meanwhile, a few hundred metres down the road, Britain’s National Theatre is streaming A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie on YouTube for free.

In normal times it would be a sell-out with a lucrative transfer to the commercial West End all but guaranteed. But instead the theatre is relying on donations from viewers.

Gwendoline Christie is appearing on YouTube in a streamed version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo: Valerie Macon/AFP

Streaming may be a boon for opera, ballet and drama lovers desperate for their fix. But with 75 per cent of British theatres saying they may not survive the year, many are questioning how good streaming can be for theatre’s parlous financial health. Performing arts companies in the US face a similar situation.