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The End of the Civic Theatre?Dateline: 2nd July, 2000 The news that Apollo Leisure is to take over the running of Sunderland's Empire Theatre for a period of twelve years raises some interesting possibilities. Opened more than 90 years go (by Vesta Tilley), the 2000-seat Empire is a lyric theatre on a grand scale. It was run by local impressario Richard Thornton for many years, attracting all the big music hall names, and eventually was taken over by Moss Empires, a company with a chain of theatres throughout the country. Moss Empires, of course, later became part of the Stoll Moss Group. A glorified strip joint By the mid-fifties, however, this once A List theatre was reduced to putting on "nudie" shows. Had the girls so much as moved a hand, the censor would have closed the show, but, because there was no movement, these naked ladies were deemed to be "artistic tableaux". (I remember when I was 12 or 13 sneaking surreptitious glances at the production photos as I passed the theatre. Oh boy, what a thrill that was! Far better than the pictures in the copies of Tid Bits found in every barber's shop!) However, even these glorified strip shows weren't enough to save the theatre and it was bought by what was then Sunderland Corporation, becoming one of the earliest civic theatres in the country. It may actually have been the second - I know Nottingham got there first! - but I am sure it was the first civic receiving house. A civic theatre In the early days the Theatre Trust did attempt to run a rep season in the summer, but it never really attracted an audience and, after a few years, they gave up. From time to time they did attempt to put on their own productions: one, entitled You Should Have Been Here Yesterday, was a spectacularly unsuccessful - and expensive! - attempt to tell the town's history. The local press and the local Tories (they were more or less the same) made the show a by-word for council waste, and since then the only production the theatre has done has been its always-successful pantomime. For the last 25 years the theatre has been a B list receiving house, with a very mixed programme. At first plays featured quite strongly, but poor audiences and a scarcity of the right product led to plays being almost completely squeezed out. At one time in the early seventies it looked as though it would become the NE home for the RSC. Their production of Henry V with Alan Howard did very good business, which raised the hopes of theatre-goers in the town, especially since, being bigger than the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, its stage and facilities seemed ideally suited to RSC productions. However it was not to be, and when the company returned to the NE, it was to the Theatre Royal, where it has been ever since. Musicals generally have done good business, although the major productions don't come to the theatre: Me and My Girl played the Empire, but Cats the Theatre Royal, and that has been the picture since the early seventies. Ballet and opera do good business: the full Ring Cycle in the early eighties played to packed houses, as does the Birmingham Royal Ballet every year. However in the last ten years or so one-night stands have been the norm - sixties revivals, hypnotists, and that kind of thing - interspersed with BRB and Scottish Opera, local amateur operatic societies and the occasional musical. Losing money The Empire has run at a loss for many years, in spite of the efforts of the Trust and successive managers. For a time the burden was shared - although the theatre was owned by Sunderland it was funded by Tyne and Wear, the metropolitan county created out of Sunderland, South and North Tyneside, Gateshead and Newcastle. When, after a very short life (for Tyne and War was created in the local government re-organisation in 1974), Tyne and Wear vanished, the burden of supporting the theatre fell on what was soon to become Sunderland City Council. Since then the City Council has tried valiantly to keep the theatre going, but when Apollo and ATG indicated an interest in taking over its running, the council, inevitably in a time of straitened local government spending, saw an opportunity to rid itself of a burden and still keep the theatre as a resource for the city's populace. For a large group like Apollo has a much better chance of bringing major productions to the theatre: buying in a top-class show for a number of venues is always going to be much easier than trying to attract it to a single theatre, which has gained a reputation for small houses. So the Empire, independent under its proprietor Dick Thornton, was swallowed by a large chain, then reverted to independence under the town council, and now changes again to become part of a large chain, although this time with the difference that the chain is responsible for programming and not for the theatre itself. When it first became a civic theatre, the Empire was a trendsetter. Could it possibly be setting yet another trend with the latest development? There are many receiving houses in a similar position to the Empire. Just twelve miles up the road in Newcastle there is the Theatre Royal, and further south on Teesside the Billingham Forum and the Darlington Civic are also owned and run by local councils. None of them, not even the Theatre Royal, are as big as the Empire (nor, in my view, are they so attractive as buildings): a full house at the Darlington Civic would look lost in the Empire! Most outside of the major conurbations (i.e. London, Birmingham, Manchester)
are struggling to survive. All they can offer production companies is
their own track record in attracting audiences and so, regardless of
their physical size, they do not have a great deal of pulling power
as far as the major shows are concerned. Linked with others, however,
they become a much more attractive proposition. Could the Empire be yet again setting a trend? I will be watching future developments with interest. Articles Indices:
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