AN empty theatre in Worcester was lit up with the colours of the rainbow as a symbol of hope during the coronavirus crisis.

This week technical staff at the Swan Theatre turned the auditorium a rainbow spectrum, sending a message of hope for the venue after Covid-19. The Swan has sophisticated houselights, installed three years ago by technical manager Gareth Morgan. He said: “They allow us to enrich the lighting in the auditorium whilst also aiding to the immersion of the audience into the action on the stage, for example if we want to create an underwater scene, we can turn the lighting blue and everyone feels as though they are in the water.”

The Swan Theatre is one of a handful of venues which use this method of additional LED house lighting. The effect was created by Ben Merrick, chief electrician. He said: “The effect was easy to create as it is a simple matter of programming the lighting desk using the colour elements, based on red, green, blue and white and colour mixing to the required colours.”

Worcester Live Charitable Trust, which operates the Swan Theatre, Huntingdon Hall and the Worcester Repertory Company used the photograph on social media channels to highlight their campaign to raise £10,000 to support the venues through the Covid -19 crisis. Chief executive Sarah-Jane Morgan said: “We have had an amazing response to our campaign so far, we are just delighted with the speed at which we have reached almost 50 per cent of our target, the support from our followers on social-media has been heart-warming, people have been sharing the post, in some cases every few days, just to keep highlighting the campaign for us. Having almost reached £5,000 we are desperately hoping people will continue to support us so we can reach the target by June 20 which is the Swan Theatre’s 55th Birthday.”

To support the campaign visit www.worcester-rep.co.uk or through Facebook or by postal donations.