Theatre Royal #LightItInRed

On the evening of Wednesday 30^th September, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds will be illuminated in red to show our support, and raise awareness of, an industry in crisis #LightItInRed.

Like many theatres, our doors have been closed since March with no likelihood of opening them to the public before Spring 2021. This is as a result of a global pandemic.  Thousands of highly skilled people throughout the UK are affected by this crisis and we want to show our support for them.

We have been hugely grateful for the Government’s furlough scheme which has allowed us to pay all our contracted and casual staff for the 7 months to the end of October and retain the majority of contracted staff from November onwards.  This has been a lifeline which has saved us and many other theatres from closure.

We have applied to the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund which offers financial support for cultural organisations that were financially stable before Covid-19, but are now at risk of failure. We hope to hear the outcome of that application within the next two weeks.

We have also been supported throughout this closure by our loyal patrons, sponsors and customers without whom we simply could not survive – even in ‘normal’ times and our reopening appeal currently sits at a little over £72,000 – we have been overwhelmed by the love and support for Theatre Royal from the community of Bury St Edmunds and beyond and we can’t wait to welcome everyone back when the time is right.

At Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, The Show Will Go On.  We are participating in #LightItInRed in support of an industry that creates millions of memories with millions of stories, stories that are told, and retold to friends and families around the world.

To achieve this illumination, we are delighted to have been able to utilise the talents of our highly skilled technical and utilities team who have been furloughed themselves since March and are working on flexi-furlough to make this happen for us.