Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds
I visited the Theatre Royal in Westgate Street to meet Karen Simpson, Theatre Director, and Danusia Iwaszko, whose business card helpfully delivers her name phonetically (Dan-oosha Ee-vash-co) but who lets me call her Danny which is a lot easier. I am there at the invitation of Nicki Dixon, a whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm who is their Press and Communications Officer. I am also introduced to Emma, a delightful lady whose area is marketing, and who is busy filling envelopes; there is an atmosphere of quiet efficiency, of people getting on with their jobs, and seeming to be having a good time doing it.
You are unlikely to have missed the fact that the Theatre Royal is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. I was a little puzzled by this, because surely it is considerably older than fifty years? It was patiently explained to me that what is being celebrated is the first of two major renovations which was completed in 1965. Local figures, led by Air Vice Marshall Stanley Vincent, raised £37,000 and transformed the building from a barrel store lacking a stage and without seating, into as close as could be to the original 1819 design. Jean Corke peeled away seventeen layers of wall paper with her palette knife; her husband, Martin, persuaded Green King to grant them a 21-year lease on the Theatre for a peppercorn rent.
It occurs to me that, for forty-five years of its one hundred and ninety-six, or one quarter of its life, the Theatre Royal has been unused, or “dark” in theatre speak. Not just dark but virtually derelict. Its survival is remarkable when put in that context. To what does it owe its survival? Two things stand out. First, however incongruous it might seem for a Georgian theatre to be used as a barrel store, had it not found use in that way, it might very well have been destroyed to make way for a building of more utility. Secondly, of the two renovations in its history, the first, driven by local passion and determination using funds raised in the town and in the region, was of arguably more significance than the second, which although driven by necessity was funded nationally as well as locally and benefited from the support of national figures such as Sir Peter Hall, Dame Judi Dench and Stephen Fry, under the patronage of Timothy West.
You are unlikely to have missed the fact that the Theatre Royal is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. I was a little puzzled by this, because surely it is considerably older than fifty years? It was patiently explained to me that what is being celebrated is the first of two major renovations which was completed in 1965. Local figures, led by Air Vice Marshall Stanley Vincent, raised £37,000 and transformed the building from a barrel store lacking a stage and without seating, into as close as could be to the original 1819 design. Jean Corke peeled away seventeen layers of wall paper with her palette knife; her husband, Martin, persuaded Green King to grant them a 21-year lease on the Theatre for a peppercorn rent.
It occurs to me that, for forty-five years of its one hundred and ninety-six, or one quarter of its life, the Theatre Royal has been unused, or “dark” in theatre speak. Not just dark but virtually derelict. Its survival is remarkable when put in that context. To what does it owe its survival? Two things stand out. First, however incongruous it might seem for a Georgian theatre to be used as a barrel store, had it not found use in that way, it might very well have been destroyed to make way for a building of more utility. Secondly, of the two renovations in its history, the first, driven by local passion and determination using funds raised in the town and in the region, was of arguably more significance than the second, which although driven by necessity was funded nationally as well as locally and benefited from the support of national figures such as Sir Peter Hall, Dame Judi Dench and Stephen Fry, under the patronage of Timothy West.
To read on, go to the April edition of the Bury and West Suffolk Magazine.
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