Australian theatres nervously reopen with mandatory masks and temperature checks

Sydney Theatre Company has announced it is ready to open the doors of the Roslyn Packer theatre and present its first show since March.

Wonnangatta, a new drama written by the award-winning Melbourne playwright Angus Cerini and featuring the actors Hugo Weaving and Wayne Blair, will play from 21 September to 31 October in a socially distanced production for audiences numbering no more than 147 (the Roslyn Packer can usually seat 880 patrons).

Patrons will have to pass temperature checks before they can take their seats, and masks will be mandatory.

Related: Hamilton’s Australian producers say social distancing will be a ‘deal-breaker’

“While the economics of socially distanced theatre do not stack up, in the case of Wonnangatta we have weighed the pluses and minuses and decided to continue,” the STC’s executive director, Patrick McIntyre, said.

The show has a few things on its side, McIntyre said, including strong pre-sales and a modest budget. “We think proceeding under the 4 sq metre rule and within the parameters of our overall Covid-safe planning will provide some useful lessons for the company.”

The nature of Cerini’s script helps too, the STC artistic director, Kip Williams, said.

“There’s been a lot of serendipity. Angus’s playwriting style is much more about communication between actor and audience rather than between actors. Quite accidentally, Covid safety is baked into the form of the play.”

Williams said they have already oversold the show to subscribers who purchased tickets last year, although some seats may be made available on the day of each performance. If demand is high, the company plans to bring it back for a second season.

State theatre companies and major performing arts venues across the country are nervously preparing to welcome back their audiences, in the full knowledge that whatever plans they make may be dashed the next day.

Sydney’s Belvoir is currently crossing the Ts on its safety protocols ahead of the 10 September opening of A Room of One’s Own, a play adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel. Like Wonnangatta, it’s a play that can be made reasonably Covid-safe with only two actors on stage; it will be performed to fewer than 120 seats, rather than Belvoir’s usual capacity of 300.

“The NSW Health guidelines say no singing or energetic dancing within three metres of the audience,” Belvoir’s artistic director, Eamon Flack, said. “Obviously we don’t anticipate that will be a problem with this play.”

Belvoir intends to present two more productions before year’s end. One of them – My Brilliant Career – is now in rehearsal.

“We think we’ve worked out a way to do these shows, but all we can do is hope,” Flack said. “We’ve learned to expect anything at any moment. We veer between optimism and despair.

“We will lose money, but it’s important to strive for some sense of normality. We can’t become a zombie company. We have to remain artistically active if we can.”

The situation in Victoria remains grave for theatre companies, however, with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in mothballs for the foreseeable future. The Melbourne Theatre Company recently announced the cancellation of its entire 2020 season.

Musical theatre faces additional difficulties, with large casts and energetic physical routines. What’s more, singing is under investigation by scientists as a virus spreading risk.

Nevertheless, Perth’s Black Swan State Theatre Company is going ahead with its new production of Oklahoma! and West Australian Ballet is presenting Dracula. A production of Stephen Schwartz’s 1972 musical Pippin has been announced for Sydney’s Lyric Theatre in November: they are selling tickets now for full houses, but if social distancing is still mandated in November they will move people to later shows to allow for distanced seating.

The producers of the much-anticipated Australian production of the Broadway hit Hamilton plan to commence rehearsals in January 2021 ahead of a March opening – but like Frozen, slated for December at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney, social distancing restrictions will be a “deal-breaker”, producers told the Guardian.

Lighting up the theatres is not about making money, producers say. No one expects to turn a significant profit. Many will take a loss.

In Adelaide, the State Theatre Company of South Australia is premiering its production of the Patrick Hamilton play Gaslight in Her Majesty’s Theatre, in part thanks to the venue, which has waived its hire fees for the season.

“We still pay front of house and security costs but it’s a huge relief,” STCSA’s artistic director, Mitchell Butel, said. “This act of generosity means we can at least break even. It’s about demonstrating signs of life to the public.”

Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) will reopen for the first time in six months with solo performances from local opera singers, classical musicians and cabaret stars from next week. The Playhouse will host Circa’s Leviathan.