Trinity-based theatre company, Gift Horse, who were due to start touring their production Tess today, announced yesterday evening that it has decided to postpone its upcoming performance dates until further notice.
This decision comes following an initial lack of clarity surrounding how cultural and entertainment events were to be affected by the new government regulations announced on Tuesday.
Although the National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA) has since explained that cultural events can proceed under previous guidelines with strict adherence to social distancing, this information was only first made available by way of social media yesterday afternoon.
Following this period of governmental radio silence, Gift Horse decided to postpone their upcoming tour until a time when some further, more direct clarity could be provided.
“It has become clear that cultural events and the arts are not affected by the new government restrictions – i.e. there are allowed to be more than 15 people at a performance – but due to the lack of clarity at this time, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone our tour”, the company explained in its statement.
In an email to The University Times, Signe Lury, who scripted Tess, said that the company was disappointed: “It’s really frustrating – the fact that we could have gone ahead had it not been for the government’s lack of clarity. If we had known sooner that cultural events could happen we could probably have gone ahead with the tour at the original scheduled time.”
At the time of contact with the company yesterday evening, there was still no official statement from the government concerning the arts, as Lury outlines: “There’s still no official statement – only Malcolm Byrne’s and the NCFA’s updates on Facebook and Twitter. It seems that again the arts were just forgotten about.”
Gift Horse Theatre are keen to go ahead with the tour when it is safe to do so and they can confirm how the prevailing restrictions will affect the proposed structure of their touring production. The company hopes to “decide on our new dates as soon as possible”.
