Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi says his current West End show with revolving casts and no interval is “built for these times” — but added theatre has to “get back moving”.
The actor stars in Constellations at the Vaudeville Theatre as a beekeeper who falls in love with Zoe Wanamaker’s quantum physicist.
They are one of four overlapping casts playing the parts, with Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah, Omari Douglas and Russell Tovey and Anna Maxwell Martin and Chris O’Dowd also starring in the roles.
The play, currently performed in front of a 50 per cent capacity audience, is just over an hour so masked theatregoers don’t need to leave their seats until the end.
Capaldi said: “It’s a very clever choice of play and it’s very clever to choose these casts and put it on in these times, it’s built for these times. We have to try and get back moving.
“Theatre has been decimated, we can’t be too emphatic about that.
“People’s livelihoods have become extinguished.”
Co-star Wanamaker said she was looking forward to the show on July 19 when a full house may be allowed in for the first time since Covid restrictions were introduced. “Theatre is an experience and a shared event, and I think people are really starved of that. If we cut that link then we’re a barren culture.”
