The Covid Diaries 18: The Southwark Playhouse, Talks and Quiz

An account of the activities put on by the Southwark Playhouse (talks and a quiz) before they were able to reopen their theatre. In which I discover that supporting arts institutions is a lot of fun! And educational to boot.

When Is A Theatre Not A Theatre?

The ironic thing is that I haven’t actually been to any plays at the Southwark Playhouse [EDIT: not then at least, but I have since]. But I was on their mailing list! So I’ve been able to keep up with the activities they’ve been putting on before the return of live performances.

For those who aren’t up to speed with the UK government’s regulations, live performances are still not permitted. Whereas we have been able to dine in restaurants since early July, as museums, cinemas and other leisure activities reopened, theatres have remained closed. Hence the Donmar Warehouse flipping their production of Blindness into a socially distanced ‘sound installation’ for example. This has obviously been extremely financially difficult for theatres, theatre companies, actors, freelancers, and everyone else involved in the theatrical world. There have been some awareness and fundraising campaigns to try to draw attention to this.

Southwark Playhouse Quiz Night!

Like anything with screeds of government advice, however, there were a few loopholes. The Southwark Playhouse, much to my delight, was quick to make use of them. One such loophole, for example, was the fact that from early July theatres with bars (or cafes or restaurants) could reopen these. The second the Southwark Playhouse announced that they were doing this and were trying out a socially distanced pub quiz on their opening weekend, I was there! The pub quizzes seem to have been successful, and are continuing until they need the space back for performances again.

It’s a very relaxed and inclusive set up. It’s easy to reserve a table in advance, drinks are brought to your table, and you can bring food in from the market across the street. There’s also a Zoom link for those who can’t join in person. I might be biased because my team recently won one, but I will miss them when they have to stop. Even though it’s for the good cause of the Southwark Playhouse resuming regular programming!

And Talks From Theatre Freelancers

The other thing the Southwark Playhouse have been doing during this enforced downtime is organising a series of evening talks. Hosted by theatre freelancers, the series is entitled Setting the Stage. For some reason they are the same night as their pub quizzes. I attended one of these recently on costume design. For a theatre fan but not a theatre insider it was a fascinating behind the scenes peek at what goes into productions big and small.

Titled Costume: from sketchbook to stage, it featured Costume Supervisor Lynette Mauro and frequent collaborator Sukie Kirk. They spoke about what their job actually entails; the creative process for various productions they have worked on; and the timeline to design, prepare and hand over the costumes for a range of plays, operas, ballets etc. One interesting thing I learned about was the ‘bible’ that is produced at the end of any costume design process. The idea is that someone in five years time can pick it up and recreate the costumes right down to sourcing the same trim on the petticoats.

Actually, the volume of work once the costumes are done and on stage was a real eye-opener. Not just the ‘bible’ but getting photographers in to capture each costume and so on. Also interesting was finding out how much the personality of each Designer influences the other creative people like Costume Supervisor. Some are collaborative, some just want their vision executed, some involve the actors and others don’t, and so on.

Anything Else Coming Up?

The Southwark Playhouse have recently sent out details of more talks in this series. Again they are all put on by freelancers so a nice activity and bit of support while times are tough. I don’t know if it’s a case of being the first ones out of the gate, but I feel very invested now in supporting the Southwark Playhouse. I’ll be keeping an eye on everything they’ve got coming up and will keep you posted, dear readers, on their first live show in October! Just being theatre-adjacent, having fun quizzing and learning from professionals has been very much appreciated though, and I hope it is all helping the bottom line for the Southwark Playhouse.

On its own merits: 5/5 for creativity!
Implementing Covid rules: 5/5