2020: A Theater of the Absurd for Europeâs Playhouses
The Timesâs theater critics in London, Paris and Berlin reflect on a year of closures, reopenings, restrictions and curfews, in which the show somehow went on.
At the National Theater in London in September. The cityâs theaters were closed and reopened twice in 2020, then closed a third time.Credit...Lauren Fleishman for The New York Times
Dec. 17, 2020
Matt Wolf, London Theater Critic
Theater of the absurd has nothing on the bizarre scenario endured by Britainâs playhouses during 2020. March 16 was the first of several doomsdays on which the coronavirus pandemic forced them to close their doors, bringing to a halt a theatrical economy worth billions of pounds.