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Dateline: 16th May, 2008
Derby Has a Month to Find £0.5m Derby Playhouse has given itself until June 16th to raise the money to buy the company out of administration - and artistic director Stephen Edwards is confident the theatre will do it. The Playhouse is hoping to run as an independent commercial theatre after both the Arts Council and Derby City Council refused Derby Playhouse Ltd a grant. The theatre was facing permanent closure after the Arts Council announced it wanted to reclaim £1.4m it had given to the Playhouse towards refurbishments. But after Edwards took the case to the High Court, the Arts Council suspended its demand for the cash to be returned, saying it wanted to avoid a "costly" court case. "Now that I've beaten the Arts Council's drive to liquidate the company, we've got to get enough money together to buy it out of administration," Edwards told me. "There's four or five weeks' worth of rent left, so we've agreed with the administrators that we need to get everything sorted by then. We're now working with financiers who rescue companies all the time." According to Edwards, there had been an "arm-wrestling match" with the city council over the theatre building - but the company owned it and would be borrowing money against it. "I think the building's worth £5m. We'll be looking to borrow about half a million to get us out of hock." If the administrators are satisfied with the rescue plan, the company can buy the theatre out of administration and put on live theatre again. The building has been dark since Treasure Island finished its run at the end of January. The Arts Council withdrew its grant because it said it was unconvinced that the rescue plan was viable. The city council also said it would not give the Playhouse any more cash and would be looking to present its own theatre programme across several venues in the city. Steve Orme
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