The Marlowe Theatre has revealed it will not reopen until June at the earliest - and has a surprise in store for audiences when it does return.

Under the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown, theatres can reopen with reduced capacity from May 17.

But a spokesman for the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury said: “[The theatre] is planning to present socially-distanced shows at the earliest opportunity, from June.”

The Marlowe has not yet confirmed when in June it is likely to reopen, with its spokesman saying full details of its reopening programme will be announced in coming weeks.

Confusingly, the theatre’s website still appears to be taking bookings for shows beginning as early as April 6, more than a month before theatres are allowed to open.

But the theatre did not respond to enquiries about why these dates are still listed.

The Marlowe has commissioned artist Ben Dickson to help prepare for its socially-distanced reopening by creating a unique audience of Kent characters.

The Whitstable-based portrait artist was challenged to create 50 portraits in less than a month, which will be used to fill the unusable seats around the auditorium.

The life-sized cut-outs feature an eclectic mix of people - from artists, actors and musicians, to writers, politicians and historical characters.

They include Jane Austen, Tracey Emin, Mick Jagger, Christopher Marlowe, and Canterbury’s former poet laureate Lemn Sissay.

Once socially distanced performances comes to an end, the cut-out portraits will be made available for sale.

Marlowe chief executive Deborah Shaw said: “We didn’t want our audiences coming back to an empty-looking auditorium with no atmosphere and lots of rules and regulations. Ben’s cut-out characters work brilliantly and add to the fun – you don’t know who you might end up sitting next to.”

Last July, there were warnings that up to 30 members of staff could be made redundant at the Marlowe, due to the financial impact of the coronavirus crisis.

But the theatre has not responded to queries about how its workforce has been affected by the pandemic, and how many members of staff have been made redundant.

In November, the theatre received almost £3 million of government funding to help it through the pandemic. But the theatre has not responded to requests by KentOnline's sister paper, The Kentish Gazette, for information about how the money has been, or will be spent.

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