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From pandemics to puritans: when theatre shut down through history and how it recovered

Back soon sign outside Londons Royal Court. Photo: Robert Smael
Back soon sign outside Londons Royal Court. Photo: Robert Smael
As theatre faces a shutdown unprecedented in modern times, Nick Clark and Nick Smurthwaite talk to historians and delve into the archives to find out when the industry went dark before, from the Blitz and Oliver Cromwell to plague in the 16th and 17th centuries, and see what happened next

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