For Richard Morrison, nobody better encompasses the phrase “from zero to hero” than culture secretary Oliver Dowden. Dowden, who until last Sunday, was subject to almost daily criticisms of his “lethargy and ineffectiveness” has, according to Morrison, “conjured a giant rabbit out of a battered hat.”
The funds for the arts sphere have been widely discussed and examined, dissected with more discipline than the Turner Prize winners, yet for Morrison there is yet one more hurdle which Dowden must jump.
Morrison notes: “So are we out of the woods? Far from it.” For him, the reopening of the theatre is the final cultural frontier.
Indeed, Morrison goes so far as to reject the statistics which have suggested members of the public are reluctant to return to normality, citing the desperation of our nation to travel to warmer climes. “My feeling is that, now that shops and pubs are open and budget airlines are packing in holidaymakers cheek by jowl, promoters will discover that the public’s fear of entering entertainment venues is receding much faster than initial surveys suggested,” he notes.
For Morrison, the next part of Dowden’s role is as important as its first – “publishing sensible but not over-restrictive safety guidelines that allow performers to strut their stuff again in front of paying punters.”
The examination of the separation of audiences and performers alike, leads Morrison to conclude that perhaps “we may yet see some pantos staged this December. Wouldn’t that be a great Christmas present at the end of a nightmare year?”
