From Glyndebourne’s 90-minute picnic breaks to 20-minute queues for a loo in some of the UK’s more historic theatres, the interval has long been part of the tradition of live performance, offering audiences a refuelling stop, while providing hard-pressed venues with extra income. So the decision to do away with one is never lightly taken.
Yet a flurry of high-profile productions have elected to do so, ranging from the edgy Slave Play and The Years, in London, to the 9/11 musical crowd-pleaser Come From Away, which is currently touring the UK. These are not the hour-long staples of the festival circuit, but shows of considerably more than the 75 minutes that is traditionally considered to be the staying power of the “Broadway bladder”.
