Theatres at peril because of virus social distancingpublished at 12:39 British Summer Time 5 June 2020
Two of Norwich's theatres, closed during the coronavirus lockdown, are facing an "perilous" future.
The Theatre Royal (pictured) and the Playhouse, external are run under one umbrella and since they closed on 16 March they have lost 96% of their income, managers said.
If social distancing were to be maintained at the Theatre Royal it would only be able to seat 106 people instead of the usual 1,300.
Chief executive Stephen Crocker said: "We are already losing substantial amounts of money every month and my concern would be trying to open up with social distancing and, with those economics not backing up, it just adds to those losses and further risks our future.
"The theatre sector is among those hardest hit across the whole of the economic landscape.
"We were the first to close down and it's very, very clear to me that we're going to be among the last to get back to full scale operation."