‘Theatre has a job to do in the new world’

Different venues are using the available tickets in different ways, with some offering them first to the most regular attendees, others focusing on those who are most isolated. The Brighton Festival has instigated a ballot to cope with demand, but for many of the dates it is also possible for anyone to book the remaining tickets and experience the show from wherever they are in the world.

But partnering with venues is no gimmick. After spending several weeks talking about “what we are not going to do” and unproducing (that unlovely word that has now entered the theatrical lexicon as a result of shows having to be prematurely closed down and projects unpicked) McGrath is enjoying the prospect of once again offering something to audiences and venues. The model has been kept simple to involve minimal risk and minimal paperwork and administration with most of it falling on Fuel. That’s essential for tiny venues such as Alphabetti in Newcastle where everyone is furloughed.

“Venues have been really open to the idea. Only one said no. They were excited to have something they could offer their audiences. It’s a testament to the spirit in which the industry is approaching this crisis and wanting to try things out,” says McGrath. “This is a period when experiment is to be embraced, and there is a lot to be found out by doing this and we are going to share everything we learn with the industry. Will the show work online? Who will come? Can the donation model work and generate income?”

The latter question is obviously crucial at the current time. McGrath says that overnight Fuel, which is a national portfolio organisation, lost 74% of its income. But she reckons Fuel is luckier than many because of the relationships it has forged with artists, co-producers and venues over many years.

‘We have a big job to do in reconnecting people and imagining the future’

As to whether Love Letters Straight from the Heart works online – it does. I saw a preview and, of course, watching on Zoom is a different experience from being in the same room as the performers and the rest of the audience. For a start it is really hard to gaze into someone else’s eyes on Zoom. But it is still enormously potent and emotionally rich and there is an added dimension around the painful intimacy of participating in your own home at a time when many of us are separated from those we love most.

“We were nervous about whether it would work and initially we tried it out very quietly and privately to see,” says McGrath, “but we discovered that it did, and I think that’s because the audience members are such an integral part of the show. Their contributions are crucial. It’s their dedications that make it so moving. It’s as if by writing them but putting them into the mouths of the performers it frees the audience up so they say the things they really feel but might never say out loud themselves. It is a life-affirming piece of work.”

It is also one that feels like a sprinkle of optimism in dark times. McGrath understands the anxieties of the theatre industry at the moment, and doesn’t underestimate the financial catastrophe that venues, companies and individual freelancers are facing. But she argues theatre must explore new ways and new models, and the Love Letters tour is part of that.

“Theatre has a job to do in the new world we will be moving into,” says McGrath. “We will need support from the government to survive, but if we can secure that we have a big job to do in reconnecting people and imagining the future. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m an optimist.”