ABSTRACT
This chapter examines ‘statecraft’, or the visible COVID-19 public health and safety measures, as literal ‘stagecraft’ and theorises how such measures produce ‘the socially distanced spectator’. It considers the government guidelines and safety measures for those returning to work in the performing arts as well as the biopolitics inherent in the precise choreography of audience movement in theatres. With reference to documentation prepared by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in consultation with representatives of the performing arts sector, Public Health England and the Health and Safety Executive, the chapter interrogates the performative nature of COVID-19 health and safety measures in the pandemic theatre. It seeks to draw attention to the carefully scripted role of the spectator – as well as considering the tacit agreements imbued in government guidelines regarding the spectator’s responsibilities for wider public health.
