We welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement of his four-stage plan to ease lockdown in the UK and look forward with optimism to the reopening of indoor and outdoor theatres, with social distancing, from 17 May onwards and to a potential full-scale reopening from 21 June. Our buildings are currently closed but we are working on events and activity, including the BBC Four broadcast of our brand new production of The Winter’s Tale and The Comedy of Errors, which will play in our new outdoor Lydia & Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre this summer. We look forward to welcoming you back to Stratford.
Our Artistic Director Gregory Doran said: “Throughout this pandemic, the safety and wellbeing of our audiences has remained our number one priority and, whilst we understand that this timeline remains contingent on infection rates continuing to decline and that all decisions are subject to the latest public health and safety guidance, this latest news means we are able to plan with greater optimism. We look forward with anticipation to the moment when we can, once more, open our doors with full-scale productions to celebrate all that is brilliant about live theatre.
"Despite this news, it continues to be a challenging time for theatres big and small, and for members of the freelance community, who are such a vital part of our industry, and who have, in many cases, found it disproportionately hard to access financial support.
"We are grateful to have secured a loan as part of the government’s Culture Recovery Fund, which will help us to recover, and we thank everyone who has supported us and contributed to our Keep Your RSC appeal since the closure of our buildings last March. Even when we reopen fully it will take time to return to pre-pandemic income levels and we will need to continue to make savings, as well as rebuild income, to cover the loan repayments, which will not be completed until 2040.
"We will continue to work through what this timeline means for the planned reopening of our buildings in 2021, our rescheduled productions of The Winter’s Tale and The Comedy of Errors and for Matilda The Musical to reopen at the Cambridge Theatre alongside other shows to reignite the vital West End economy.
"Alongside our colleagues across the industry, we can and will play a crucial role in the recovery of the country, knowing how valuable the arts are to our collective wellbeing."
CONTACTING TICKET BUYERS
Our Box Office team will contact everyone who has tickets booked for all cancelled or postponed performances to discuss their options. These include the possibility of exchanging tickets, donating the cost of tickets, accepting an RSC Gift Voucher or arranging a full refund.
Owing to the volume of orders we need to process, we contact people in date order, in the week that they were due to attend a performance. We will therefore be in touch with you at the start of the week during which you were due to visit us. Please don't try and contact the Box Office at the moment; we will be in touch with you as soon as we can.
Contact us
Our phone lines are closed. If you were due to visit us, our Box Office team will be in touch to discuss your refund options. If you do need to get in touch with us, then please email tickets@rsc.org.uk.
Do you have more questions? Visit our main Contact Us and FAQs page.