The Stage

National to pilot Sunday openings for ‘08 festival

Published Thursday 3 May 2007 at 10:45 by Nuala Calvi

Sunday openings will be piloted at the National Theatre from September next year, after management decided the change to a seven-day week would have to be introduced gradually.

The move to a permanent agreement with staff for Sunday openings had been scheduled to happen by March 2008, but it is now regarded as too big a step to make overnight. More time is needed to negotiate new contracts for backstage, technical and front of house staff with union Bectu.

An NT source told The Stage: “They’ve decided to dip their toe in the water first as a test, for a three-month spell on a festival basis, so we can gauge public responses and how things go in terms of the logistics with the contracts. Having the opportunity to do 12 Sundays in a row will allow them to look at a whole range of questions before we have to go full-time, such as when we do essential maintenance work on the building.

“It’s sensible really to take an experimental approach, rather than leaping in with both feet.”

The news marks the third time the move to a seven-day week - originally expected to take effect by the end of 2006 - has been delayed. Two months ago, the deadline was pushed back to March 2008 because of negotiations with unions.

Under the current arrangements, staff would have to be paid double time for Sundays, making the move financially impossible. Unlike some West End theatres, which have introduced Sunday performances, the National will not be able to close on Mondays to make up for time lost.

An NT spokeswoman said: “It will still be our definite intention to go year round - this is just a way of getting to grips with the practical and logistical issues.

“The idea of doing Sundays is a big thing for people to take on year-round straight off, and we’d like to problem-solve it on a limited basis first. We’ll be producing a detailed schedule for everybody involved to critique and that’ll be put into the negotiations.”