As she wipes down the concession counter at Saskatoon’s Rainbow Cinemas, Val Randall recalls an old Woody Guthrie song. “So long, it’s been good to know you,” she sings with cloth in hand.
The 25-year employee at the second-run theatre is helping gradually close up shop. On Monday, Rainbow told Saskatoon moviegoers the theatre was closing for good. “We’re dismantling a home.
We’re dismantling an institution,” Randall said in an interview. With the arrival of a new Cineplex theatre next door, staff expected Rainbow Cinemas to remain open until sometime in May.
With the emergence of the novel coronavirus, however, a ban on large public gatherings ensued and the theatre closed. The temporary closure is now permanent.