No hoarding Shakespeare
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s three theatres will close, in line with government advice. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre and the Studio Theatre at The Other Place will all shut for an “undetermined period of time”, the company has said.
Shakespeare was used to that. Playing companies often had to hit the road to tour when plague in London closed the theaters.
Funny, that was exactly what I was thinking about this afternoon…the number of times Shakespeare had to go on tour because the theatres were closed for the plague. Maybe it’s because all of our theatre plans have been cancelled. I haven’t heard that they’ve cancelled Romeo & Juliet yet, but I imagine it will be. We had already decided we wouldn’t go.
I had so many upcoming theatre and concert plans… all dashed now. We all did I’m sure. (I hoped so bad that I could squeeze in one last show — the Met Opera’s Flying Dutchman this past Saturday — before the curfews began in earnest. I wanted to get that last one in so badly!, but alas no. The Met threw in the towel on Friday. Damn.)
Both my jobs are gone now. My event venue has been around since the 1930s, I’ve worked there 20 years, and it looks unlikely to recover from this blow. There goes another storied Toronto arts institution. My gay bar shut down tonight at midnight and we the staff gathered for what felt like a strange funeral as we watched the clock. There goes one of the last gay bars left in the city. Toronto is nothing but condos and Chipotles now. And I can’t even afford a Chipotle burrito anymore.
Both venues will likely not return, and by 2025 both spaces will be the sites of hideous fifty-storey slapdash condo towers of 350-square-foot “micro-apartments” that Russian investors trade for millions of dollars but which no one in their right mind ever actually wants to occupy. Depressing times.
Maybe somehow this catastrophe will help nudge things back to normal in the long run? Maybe it will flush out Trump for starters. And maybe it will make people realize how precarious so many of their fellow citizens are financially. Maybe the ensuing recession will torpedo some of these destructive condo plans and counter-intuitively save one or both of my jobs. Maybe somehow when we’re all trapped in isolation for two weeks we’ll wake up to some hard truths, and maybe some things will actually change when this is done.
Here’s hoping, but sadly I doubt it.
Shakespeare was actually born during a visitation of the plague at Stratford. The family battened the hatches and isolated themselves, and William survived.
But here’s one of my favourite poems: Ben Jonson’s ‘On my first Sonne’, who died of the plague at a time Jonson was out of London. (His son was named Benjamin, which means in Hebrew ‘child of my right hand’ or eldest son):
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sinne was too much of thee, lov’d boy,
Seuen years tho’wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I loose all father now. For why
Will man lament the state he should envie?
To have so soon scap’d worlds, and fleshes rage,
And, if no other miserie, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say here doth lye
Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.
For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
I hope all goes well for you, Artymorty. All my lectures have been cancelled here in Japan, and I suspect the summer’s operas I was supposed to be involved with will be off, too (along with the Olympics, I hope), so we are battening down since my wife is not in the greatest of health and are going to have to live frugally for a while at least – not too long a one, I hope.
My condolences, Artymorty
For those of us lucky enough to still have a job to go to, this is our chance to give something back to the artists whose work has so enriched our lives as well as the venues that bring their genius to the masses. I know that most of my favorite musicians are not Your stereotypical rich rockstars traveling around the world on private jets while partying like crazy and breaking hotel rooms for fun. They are hard working, struggling artists who have suddenly lost most or all their income for the next few months. So to those of us who can afford it, here are some things we can do to keep our favorite artists and venues in business (my focus is mainly on music, but most of it should be equally applicable to other art-forms):
• As bitter as it may be to have bought tickets for an event only to have it cancelled, this is probably not the best time to ask for a refund. Personally I would rather loose the money than see the venue close and lose the chance of any similar events in the future.
• If You like someone’s music, consider actually buying it* even if it’s available for free on streaming platforms like Spotify (notorious for paying the artists like crap). Remember, it’s not just about spending as little as possible in the short term, it’s about keeping Your favorite artists in business in the long term.
• Most artists have an online store that sells signed CDs, t-shirts, posters etc. Consider buying some of their merch.
• Check out it they’re on Patreon, and if so, consider becoming a patron.
• Many artists also have a donate-button on their homepage. Consider making a donation.
• Etc. etc.
* Personally I’m so old-fashioned that I still like buying my favorite music anyway. I find that having invested something in a record makes me value it more than just listening to it for free on Spotify.
Artymorty, so sorry to hear that news. I really wish you the best and hope that things improve. Grim and uncertain times. I feel very fortunate in where NZ is at the moment and where I am personally, but I suspect we’re just a month behind the curve. Our case have jumped from 8 to 12 in 24 hours and 2 of those cases are relatives of travellers, not the travellers themselves. Beginnings of community transmission almost certainly.
Ugh, so sorry, Artymorty.
I’m really sorry, Artymorty. Those in the creative industries will be hit very hard. Theatres and cinemas closing. Musicians unable to play. A friend has to close her lovely little folk pub. Another friend teaches creative writing to community groups and won’t be able to work. Both of them enrich the city I live in, for not very much money at the best of times.
My condolences, Artymorty. Our public library just closed for the duration, which will hit hardest on people who have no internet at home. In this rural area, that is a lot more than people realize. We are keeping our online classes running, but there seems to be no guarantee that students will actually be able to do them. And my theatre students will not be able to attend two performances as required, because all the theatres are closing, so I’m making alternative assignments for them.
Artists are so frequently among the first to be hurt. We think at least some about the hourly workers, but the artists slip under the radar. Painters can still paint, writers can still write, but performers are really in a bad situation.
Dang, Artymorty, that sucks. Hope you find a way through this mess.
@Rob – I’m sorry to hear that. I though NZ had a good chance of escaping it. The protection measures that I have heard of is ceasing to practice the hongi!
Today I was sent home with almost everyone in our office to work from home, when they sort out a laptop for me.
It is all so unreal and unprecedented in our lifetimes.
I’m sorry, Artymorty.
Here’s hoping both businesses manage to survive despite the odds.