Snow White pantomine at the Millennium Forum last Christmas
Despite things slowly beginning to reopen, Derry’s Millennium Forum says that with “enormous regret”, it will be cancelling its Christmas pantomime of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ until 2021.
Part of the reason cited was the need for an interactive crowd.
In a statement, the venue said the decision had been taken following recent government advice.
“The considerations in relation to social distancing within the venue as well as the financial risk in presenting such a huge production in the current climate meant that the much-loved seasonal production has had to be postponed,” the statement said.
Millennium Forum Chief Executive, David McLaughlin, said: “It is devastating to have to make this call to reschedule the 2020 pantomime as, each Christmas, we welcome nearly 30,000 patrons to our spectacular production.
“We must accept, however, the inevitable barriers that Covid 19 presents with the imposition of extreme operating restrictions preventing us from delivering the magical Forum Panto for which we are known.
“We currently believe that we are unable to do that this year and would not be doing our show, theatre and, most importantly, our audience, justice in the current in which we all must operate.
“Our customers deserve the very best we can produce for the stage of the Millennium Forum and, unfortunately, postponing our production until next year feels like the fairest, most sensible and safest option at this time.”
“Our Box Office team will contact all current ticket holders with a view to automatically transferring bookings over to next year and, if this is not suitable, a full refund will be available.”
Martin Bradley, Chairperson of the Derry Theatre Trust, the theatre’s governing body, said:
“We would like to thank all our audience members and supporters including all our funders, particularly, Derry City and Strabane District Council and Arts Council NI for their continued support in these challenging and difficult times.
“I would urge the public to continue to support our theatre by buying tickets for future performances which are currently advertised on our website.”
The rescheduled dates for Sleeping Beauty, which is sponsored by Richmond Centre, Derry are 26th November 2021 to 20th December 2021.
All queries concerning current or new bookings can be made by contacting [email protected]
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