Mercury Theatre Colchester's Free Panto Stream Reaches 61k+ Views

The Mercury Theatre Colchester last Saturday streamed their 2019 pantomime, Cinderella, to the public via YouTube Premiere, providing family friendly, at-home entertainment over the Easter period while the UK remains in lockdown.

The streaming, which was free for viewers to access, saw 2640 households tune in to the Premiere at 3pm on Saturday 11 April, with views reaching an incredible 61,094 by the end of the week long run.

Cinderella was originally recorded in December 2019, when it was live streamed directly to local medical and care facilities, including the Colchester Hospital's Paediatric Unit, Balkerne Garden's care home, and a number of local hospices and care settings, spreading festive cheer to those who were otherwise unable to attend in person.

The Easter release also saw audiences tune in from across the globe, including drama students from New York, British Nationals residing in France and Italy, and a Toronto based theatre club who were lucky enough to receive a Q&A with the Mercury's Creative Director Ryan McBryde over Zoom following their online event.

Alongside the YouTube release, the Essex based theatre also encouraged viewers to tweet along to the show, and provided family friendly activities including a customisable print-at-home ticket design and a character colouring in sheet, encouraging households to make an event of it from the safety of their sofa.

The YouTube streaming was presented as part of the theatre's #MercuryOnline programme, launched in response to the current COVID19 lockdown. Mercury Online offers free, often interactive digital activity to both audiences and arts industry professionals. Phase One of the programme includes Monday Masterclasses, Storytime with Dale (a Mercury panto favourite), Wednesday Sing-a-longs with West End star Craig Mather, an Introduction to Fundraising and Arts Council Support webinar, and Mercury Monologues - an exciting creative writing competition in partnership with publishing giants Josef Weinberger Ltd. More interactive activities are due to be announced in the coming weeks - watch this space!

While all #MercuryOnline activity is free to its users, the Mercury hope that those who feel able to do so will consider supporting the theatre with a donation, either online at www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/support or by texting MERCURY to 70085 to give £5*.

The Mercury would like to once again thank the cast, crew and creative team of Cinderella all of whom kindly agreed that this recording could be made available on YouTube for one week, providing free, family friendly entertainment during lockdown.

For more information on Mercury Online activities visit www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/mercury-online . The Mercury's Customer Experience team are also available to discuss all Mercury Online activities (or just for a friendly chat!) over the phone Monday to Friday, 11am - 4pm on 01206 573948.

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