Tuesday 17th March
Marina Theatre makes the decision to close
Following Government advice, and alongside other UK theatres, we have closed from today, Tuesday 17th March, until further notice. We do not know how long this closure will last, but our policy will be regularly reviewed in-line with Government advice. We are officially cancelling all March & April events. A full list of cancelled events are listed at the bottom of this message.
We make this announcement with a heavy heart, but we respect the recommendations made by our Government and we are keen to do everything we can to help slow the spread of the virus and keep our community, customers and staff safe.
Customers who have purchased tickets to any events taking place between the Tuesday 17th of March and Thursday 30th April will be contacted by us directly. Most customers will be contacted via email in the first instance, so please also make sure to keep an eye out for emails and be sure to check your junk folders regularly. Please make sure that the contact details we hold for you are correct, as out of date phone numbers and email addresses slow our progress! You can update your account details at any time via our website, or email them to info@marinatheatre.co.uk. Please do not contact the Box Office as they are receiving a large volume of calls. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
All shows scheduled after Thursday 30th April are in theory still going ahead, but this may change at any time. These are very uncertain times for us all. Shows taking place between Friday 1st May and Friday 31st July have been temporarily taken off sale until our future is clearer. Shows taking place after Saturday 1st September are on sale as normal.
Please visit our dedicated Coronavirus page on our website to keep up to date with Marina Theatre announcements.
Statement from Emma Butler Smith, Marina Theatre CEO:
"We've been expecting this announcement would come, and have been working hard behind the scenes to be as ready for it as possible. We appreciate the difficult decisions that our government is facing, and we're willing to do everything we can to help. These are very uncertain times, and many people in our community are facing difficulties. We're also aware that The Marina is a very large organisation, employing 44 local people who are financially reliant on us.
We have an expensive building to run, and unlike a lot of other not-for-profit theatres of our size we do not receive any core Arts Council revenue funding, and instead rely very heavily on ticket sales and the generosity of our customers. Although this announcement is in the best interests of our community (and we support it whole heartedly) my priority is also to our theatre - and these measures will undoubtedly hit us hard.
We are however already receiving a number of messages of kindness and support from our customers, many of whom are asking to donate the value of their lost tickets instead of receiving refunds. We are all very touched by the sentiment behind these acts of kindness, and would like to strongly thank everybody who has come forward with offers of help. Your generosity is overwhelming. Thank you."
The following events have been cancelled:
- The Bear: March 17th & 18th
- The King Is Back: March 20th
- Michael Starring Ben: March 21st
- Jimmy Buckley: March 22nd
- The Personal History of David Copperfield (Film): March 23rd & 25th
- The Fairy Queen: March 24th
- Jonas Kaufmann 'My Vienna' (Screening): March 25th
- Rich Hall: March 26th
- The Rocket Man: March 28th
- Michael Ball & Alfie Boe - Back Together (Screening): March 29th
- Romeo & Juliet (Screening): March 30th
- Bombshell (Film): March 31st
- Happily Never After - Marina Youth Theatre: April 2nd
- The Fureys: April 3rd
- The Simon & Garfunkel Story: April 4th
- Tech Club: April 4th
- Dolittle (Film): April 6th
- Easter In Art (Screening): April 7th
- Giovanni Pernice - This is me: April 9th
- Emma (Film): April 14th
- Onward (Film): April 14th
- Astronaut (Film): April 17th
- Military Wives (Film): April 20th
- Jewels (Screening): April 20th
- Herman's Hermits: April 24th
- Misbehaviour (Film): April 27th
Many of these shows will be rescheduled at our venue during our autumn 2020 and spring 2021 seasons. Rescheduling tours do however take some time to finalise.
We do however have some options for our customers:
1) You can ask for the value of your ticket to be put on your account as credit, which can be used on future performances - including any rescheduled dates.
3) You can donate all (or part) of the value of your tickets to us. Many of our customers have kindly offered to do this as they understand that this is a very difficult time for us, and theatres in general. If you are in a position to help, we would be enormously grateful.
3) You can have a full refund.