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CULTURE DEBATE. For a short time in August, the government misled us into thinking that it was listening to us in the culture industry. He made us believe that he understood the unique terms and conditions of the theater and entertainment industry and that he also realized how big the industry is, how many billions it generates, how many of those who directly and indirectly derive their income from it.
It was announced that from October 1 we could open the cinemas to 500 people.
Today showed Stefan Löfven that it was just a game for the galleries.
metoday came the message that the opening will not turn off.
The infection has increased slightly and therefore the restrictions are maintained.
In other words, what is retained is the absurd inconsistency in the regulations that everyone, including the ministers, recognized: you will not be infected in Ullared or in a crowded plane, but in a theater. You will not get infected if you sit and eat, even if there are more than 50 people in the room, but if someone plays the guitar, then death is near.
The culture and entertainment industry is still the peasant victim.
But that the infection would increase was not news to anyone.
Already in August when the opening of a large-scale press conference was announced Amanda lind and Mikael Damberg Did you know that the infection would increase? When summer turned into fall, schools started and people returned to the city.
Still, they waved the slit in front of our eyes like a leg of pig in front of a hungry one.
I guess it was just to silence the criticism.
You have not understood anything.
So let me introduce you to one of the 150,000 – 200,000 people who worked on entertainment to make it a little more real, a little more concrete for Amanda Lind, Mikael Damberg and Stefan Löfven.
Then came the covid-19 and Mattias’s life collapsed.
Let me tell you about Mattias.
Mattias is one of the most skilled dressing rooms in Sweden. A specialized profession that means that in a large production you track hundreds of ultra-fast clothing changes during a performance.
In addition, he is responsible for the wardrobe care of all the hundreds of costumes, not to mention all the wigs, which must be brushed, repaired and prepared for the performance every day.
No matter how skilled Mattias is at what he does, he has always had a job, he has known how to plan his life, and that is why last year he dared to realize his dream of moving to the country, to a house that he renovated in his spare time.
Then came the covid-19 and Mattias’s life collapsed.
And he never had a chance to defend himself. To do what he has always done and which is so common in the theater and entertainment industry: he worked harder, he worked harder and thus was his own successful blacksmith.
He was banned from working without bothering to announce how long the ban lasted or how he would survive in the meantime.
Now he is forced to leave the house, just as he sold the car, just as he now sells all his furniture to get money for food.
You just sell everything you own.
And it is leaving the industry. Change profession. Your specialized knowledge is lost. They are not replaced without further ado.
Mattias is not alone. One third of all musicians are moving away from the industry. The same goes for techniques.
Most recently today, I heard about another person in the industry who, like Mattias, is now forced to leave her home. Helplessness is spreading, as is despair.
And Amanda Lind, Mikael Damberg and Stefan Löfven, ignorant as they are, don’t let it happen. Because they refuse to report, they accelerate and exacerbate the disaster.
Once again, I have to be upset and explain that our industry is a planning industry.
Even though we were allowed to play for 500 people as of October 1, as announced, only some of the productions had been able to play. In my own case, only 7 of the 45 concerts could have been performed this fall.
Why?
Because tickets are sold well in advance.
When the restrictions were introduced in March, all ticket sales were stopped everywhere.
Our hope to open on October 1 isn’t primarily about playing this fall.
Without us perhaps, perhaps, the sale of tickets for the spring performances would have started, and it occurs especially in the upcoming Christmas shopping.
If we don’t start selling tickets until then, we’ll also have to scrap the entire spring of 2021.
And then despair, helplessness, bankruptcy and anger will reach proportions that we have not yet come close to.
Spring 2020 is postponed to Fall 2020, which is now postponed to Spring 2021, which will likely have to be postponed until Fall 2021.
This means, if we can play then, that in the fall of 2021, the industry will make up for four seasons at a time. It will not work.
A concrete example. I would have played in Halmstad on Nov 14, but now I have to rebook and reserve a replacement date at the Halmstad theater in both spring and fall 2021 because we are blindly searching when we can play but unlike the government we MUST provide concrete information to our audience. .
In the fall of 2021, there was only one free date at the Halmstad Theater. Throughout the fall. Fy satan, what the people of Halmstad must undertake to go to a theater, show or concert in the fall of 2021, at least many times a week.
They will not do that. The hearing will not be enough.
Of course, we should call a general strike. We should be quiet everywhere. TV, Spotify, radio, departmental theaters, cinemas.
And when we finally get to play, guess how many one-man shows will be on tour, how many lone comedians will stand in front of a curtain and a riot, or how many singers will come with their guitar, because how the heck would we dare risk the many millions he must risk with every big production?
Even before today’s negative government announcement, polls show that a third of all musicians are about to leave the industry. The same goes for techniques. The crisis accumulates and accumulates.
For every season that disappears, it gets worse, and the extra $ 1.5 billion the government so generously announced for culture is already just a drop in the bucket.
Like spitting in the Ångermanälven and claiming that they have thus secured the water level there.
But if the government now does not dare to allow us to open again, it must still be possible, in the name of decency, to let us know what conditions must be met so that we can do so.
Since low spread is not enough, should covid-19 go away completely? And if so, is it just covid-19 that we need to protect ourselves from? Any other virus then?
From now on, do we have to close all theaters and cinemas every time there is a new flu? Influenza also means death among the elderly. Sometimes with a higher proportion of deaths than covid-19.
In that case, we can never reopen.
What can we do?
Of course, we should call a general strike. We should be quiet everywhere. TV, Spotify, radio, departmental theaters, cinemas.
But it will never happen.
On the contrary, the institutions continue to play for empty rooms and thus contribute to feign normality. The death of one is the bread of the other. Solidarity in the industry has never existed, today less than ever.
I have not heard a single employee of institutional theaters raise his voice in solidarity for a single one of his many unemployed and desperate peers in the private sector of the industry.
The ones in institutional theaters are a bit like the ones who were saved in the lifeboats when the “Titanic” sank and then they sat back and watched when everyone else drowned.
So maybe Mattias is doing the only thing right.
Leave the sinking ship while the musicians play “Closer to God to you” and then give thanks for themselves and sink.
Jonas Gardell is an author, artist, and contributor to Expressen’s culture page. Read his previous articles on the pandemic below.
