Livvii's Eccentric Enigmas : Stand By Please Ladies and Gentlemen of the Company

At the end of October I become redundant from my job on the Mary Poppins Musical in London.

September 23rd marked marked a whole year since our first day of fit up. It also marked a whole year since I completed my apprenticeship in technical theatre. I haven't been to work since the 23rd of March, and won't be returning to work until next year at the earliest.

I've known about my redundancy since July. It didn't come as a surprise; in fact I probably would have been more shocked if I wasn't to be made redundant. On July 29th I went back into London for the first time since lockdown started. For a city in the middle of summer I couldn't believe how quiet it was. There was so few people around and so little traffic on the roads. The walk from Embankment to Soho is usually a busy one, but I swear that it took half the time it normally would to do that walk. I'm pretty certain that the only people in Soho were delivery drivers for the recently reopened bars and restaurants and other theatre workers like my self going back into the theatres for the same reason I was; to get their personal belonging and tools from their lockers and offices.

I was pretty sad to walk past the main door of the Prince Edward Theatre (current home to Poppins) and see it all boarded up. It was a bit of a harsh reminded that this isn't something that is going to be over quickly, that we were going to be Dark for a while. I think we all had it our heads when this started that the country would be on lockdown for 12 weeks and then we would be back; that by the time July rolled around we would be back stepping in time and flying kites.

This is unfortunately the case for so many people in the arts and entertainment industry. So many people are out of work and many don't even qualify for any financial support. Do you know what I find most frustrating? The number of people that don't work in the entertainment and live arts industry that are of the opinion that what we do isn't a real job, isn't important enough to get government support. It's frustrating and also hilarious. It's hilarious because while they are of that opinion, they are more than happy to spend their days in lockdown bingeing Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus etc. Who do they think made those TV show and films? In a normal world they are quite happy to spend date night at the theatre with their significant other. I wonder how they'll all feel if the industry that provides relief from their boredom and enjoyable evenings out was to disappear? I suppose its that classic thing of you don't know what you've got until it's gone, but that doesn't help those of us being put out of work now.

There are some good things that have come out of lockdown. I've probably spoken to my best friend more in the last six months than I have in the last two or three years. I know it sounds bad when put like that but we have that kind of friendship that accepts that we are both busy adults and it gives us more to talk about when we do catch up. (She was also my Press Night Guest when Poppins opened, so she can't say I don't get her anything 😜). I caught up on a lot of TV that I hadn't gotten around to watching, spent more time with my mum, and most importantly have been able to eat my dinner of an actual plate rather than out of Tupperware (it's the little things that count). All that aside I really do miss going to work. I know that I complain at times about the long hours, the six day week, the always working of Bank Holiday weekends, but I genuinely love my job. I love the good days, the long days, the days where anything that can go wrong goes wrong in the most spectacular of fashions. I love my job even though the hours don't really allow for a social life, don't allow for free time, and don't allow for you to forget to do your laundry on your one day off if you want to wear clean socks the following week.

Like so many in the arts that have lost their jobs and have had to turn to other means of income, I have started to do more with my Etsy shop. Although if you have read any of my recent posts you probably would have figured that much out by now.