The Vicissitudes of Covid-19 Pandemic and Theatre's Preparedness to Survive Inauspicious Circumstances

Like many live events, live theatre suffered untold privation during the COVID-19 Pandemic. A contagion that brought death to many in virtually all parts of the world for many months; prompting the use of Social Distancing and Total Lockdown as preventive measures. Unfortunately, this era witnessed a dramatic twist from cluster to dispersion, which invariably affected, not only theatre practice, but other live events that hitherto required large gatherings in single locations. However, lack of preparedness for such an inauspicious circumstance apparently led to global debates among scholars in different fields, especially, as it regards preparedness in case of future occurrence. In view of the above, this paper examines theatre’s preparedness to subsist subsequent inauspicious situations that may arise in the near future. This paper used secondary sources to generate data and deploys theatre adaptation as conceptual framework. The paper found out that Although, COVID-19 pandemic has caused major shutdown of theatre facilities across the world, theatre practice has not completely eliminated, but has been able to survive through strict adherence to various safety measures and the use of live streaming on the internet. It concluded that theatrical performances may not be able to thrive effectively on the internet and thus, all the active partners should give priority attention to reducing the risk of COVID-19 while audience can still continue in the culture of live theatre.