No drinks, no ice creams: theatre intervals in peril as producers say the show must go on

For some it is an indispensable part of their night at the theatre, a chance to top up a glass of wine, quickly appraise the plot and, crucially, to pop to the loo. To others it is an interruption that impedes the drama and makes the eventual journey home even later.

- Nadia Khomami , Zainab Haji

Now it appears the contentious nature of the theatre interval is giving producers their own pause for thought. With more and more shows being staged across London without breaks - from Slave Play at the Noël Coward to The Years at the Almeida experts say changing audience habits and a desire for fully immersive theatre is behind the shift.

"It's a surprising development given that revenue from bar sales is such a vital source of income for most theatres," said James Rowson, a lecturer in theatre and cultural policy at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. "Especially when so many theatre buildings are currently under increasing financial pressures as a result of funding cuts and the cost of living crisis."

Rowson said the shift could be a hangover from the pandemic, when many people fell out of the habit of attending the theatre. "It could well be that by staging productions without intervals and cutting running times, theatres are attempting to win back hesitant members of the public and establish a new generation of theatregoers."

This, he added, could "re-establish theatre in the night-time ecology in a more flexible way by allowing theatregoers to build watching a show into a night out with other activities, or simply make it home from a show earlier".

Over the past four years, much has been written about whether the era of intervals is over. Writing in the Stage, Lyn Gardner called intervals an "outmoded, unnecessary theatre convention".

After lockdown, the Globe took a more relaxed approach to intervals.