Can You Hear The People Sing – a response to the government’s failure to act to save the UK Theatre industry was being planned for 11 July is now on hold.
STOP PRESS: Can You Hear The People Sing Protest organiser Darren Bell has advised a decision has been made to pause the protest in light of government support announced on the 5th July until the full detail of the financial aid is understood. Once we have the chance to review and discuss the details, we want to make sure we channel the momentum and commitment you have shown in the right direction. For now, we support SOLT’s statement in response to the statement from DCMS.
THE PROTEST: When Darren Bell saw a Tweet from Sarah Jane-Price he realised waiting any longer to protest the UK Government’s handling of the current UK Theatre crisis was no longer an option, so he started planning Can You Hear The People Sing? taking our concerns direct to Whitehall.
Think we should all go sing musicals really loudly outside Parliament until they listen to us.
— Sarah-Jane Price (@itssjpbaby) June 17, 2020
On the new website about the protest, he said: “Theatre has been left behind by the government. The DCMS have been slow to work out a road to recovery for the C in DCMS. Hundreds of redundancies show still closed and as yet no real roadmap of when they will re-open.
“Many are still unable to claim any financial support as the CJRS or SEISS schemes do not cover everyone for the smallest of reasons including PAYE freelancers, maternity pay, people who pay themselves dividends.
“We were told no one gets left behind, and we are.”
The Can You Hear The People Sing March will take place on a date to be advised in London (approval pending) with details to be provided soon. Social distancing guidelines are to be observed. You can sign up to receive more information via the website – CLICK HERE
Please help save the UK Theatre Industry!
