Actors will give performances that were meant for the stage via sterilised home studio kits as part of a theatre festival for shows cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. The Lockdown theatre festival, which will air on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, is the brainchild of the actor Bertie Carvel. Four productions will be broadcast during the launch weekend of 13 June and 14 June as part of the BBC culture in quarantine initiative. Speaking to the Guardian, Carvel – best known for his TV role as a cheating husband in Doctor Foster - said British theatre was facing an existential threat from Covid-19, but added that with enough government support it could be reshaped to become more diverse and inclusive once the lockdown comes to an end. “This isn’t the usual complaint about underfunding of the arts,” he said. “This national treasure stretching back to William Shakespeare is under threat. We need a really grown-up conversation and money from the exchequer to pull together some serious industrial investment on a strategic level so we can rebuild. “There’s an opportunity for regrowth and for us to rebuild our cultural industries with better leadership and more diversity, but let’s be really clear all of those arts organisations that were already struggling are in danger of being lost.” Carvel, who has won two Olivier awards and one Tony, said the UK government needed to follow the lead of Germany and deliver a comprehensive support package for the arts, otherwise many of the country’s theatres would not be able to reopen after the lockdown measures were lifted. Germany announced a federal aid package worth €50bn (£43bn) for freelancers and small businesses, with Berlin distributing €5,000 payments to individual freelancers, including artists. “We look across with envy at Germany, where they’ve announced a huge support package for the arts coming out of this crisis,” he said. “If we don’t think big about how we’re going to build back better then we’re not going to have an arts and culture scene, or at least it’s not going to be anything like we have become used to.” Four productions will be broadcast during the festival’s launch weekend as part of BBC Arts’ initiative. Mike Bartlett’s Love Love Love and Winsome Pinnock’s Rockets and Blue Lights will air on Radio 3, while Radio 4 will broadcast Josh Azouz’s The Mikvah Project and Shoe Lady by EV Crowe. All four productions were forced to close early. The BBC’s technical team delivered the home studio equipment to each actor, sterilising them before and after use at their homes across the country. Some practical difficulties beyond those usually encountered during a stage production arose, including one recording being forced to pause at 1pm because of a cannon firing at Edinburgh castle, near a performer’s home. Vicky Featherstone, whose production of Shoe Lady closed early at the Royal Court theatre, London, said: “This festival allows more people to hear the work and begins to create a sense of the breadth, passion, imagination and talent of this country’s incredible range of theatre-makers.” Carvel’s fears for the theatre scene echoed those of the playwright James Graham, who worked with Carvel on his play Ink and called for an “aggressive government bailout”, warning that without one the industry would only become more elitist after the Covid-19 crisis ends. The artistic director of the National Theatre, Rufus Norris, recently said that some theatres had only days before they may go out of business, and urged the government to offer more support to freelancers.