Collen Players' 'closed' show to be streamed live on Facebook to beat virus

* The Collen Players at their last sell-out music hall show in February.

Unable to perform in front of an audience because of coronavirus crowd restrictions, a group of old time music hall enthusiasts in Llangollen have come up with a high-tech way of letting people see their next show.

Llangollen Players was formed late last year by the town’s vicar Father Lee Taylor, who himself is a big music hall fan, to revive the Victorian-style of entertainment.

So far they’ve donned their period costumes to present three sell-out shows in the Community Hall which is always dressed for the occasion to recreate the atmosphere of a turn-of-the-century theatre.

The Players’ fourth production was supposed to be on May 1 but when they realised there was no way they would be able to perform to a live audience because of government advice on the infection risk of large crowds they decided to do it online instead.

And so at 7pm on Wednesday April 1 they're going behind closed doors when at least four of the group will perform on their usual stage while the show is streamed live on their own Facebook page, The Collen Players https://www.facebook.com/collenplayers/

Father Taylor, who acts as on-stage chairman for the shows and also performs comedy songs in them, said: “When it became clear we wouldn’t be able to get ahead with our May 1 show in front of our usual audience we got together and decided the best way was to stream something live instead.

“We’re going to do it a month earlier than planned because I expect quite a number of our regular audience will by that time be self-isolating and we’re aiming to cheer them up best we can with our show.

“Naturally, we’ll be taking every necessary precaution to ensure that none of our performers are at risk of passing on any infection.

“We will all be allocated individual rooms or spaces in the Community Hall on arrival so we don’t have to worry about coming into contact with anyone. They’ll then perform on stage one by one.

“It will be a shorter performance than usual, with songs and monologues and things like that, and at the end we won’t be socialising as we usually do but all heading straight home.

“We hope that the show will bring a little happiness in all the gloom surrounding coronavirus and that as many people as possible will tune it to see it.”