When the Theatre Goes Dark

COLIN MARR, the Director of Eden Court Theatre, tells the Arts Journal what is likely to be happening when the theatre closes its door for massive refurbishment in June
 

ARTS JOURNAL: Colin, you must be having some very unaccustomed duties for a theatre director these days?

COLIN MARR: Last year was a very strange one from an organisational point of view – I’ve spent more time in meetings with architects than I could possibly tell you, and the business planning for our close-down period is very unusual. I’ve been here seven years now and planning a normal year is reasonably straightforward for me, but trying to think about a period when we are here as normal for six months, closed for 18 months, and then re-opening with one-and-a-half times the previous capacity has taken a lot of time! Coming up with a business plan that will actually work in those circumstances is not easy.

AJ: So when do the doors close?

CM: We will have a concert with Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain here on the 4 June, and then we close. Our aim is to re-open in time for the pantomime at the end of 2006.

AJ: You have chosen the opening weekend of the Highland Festival to close – was there any significance, political or otherwise, in shutting them out?

CM: None at all. We were under enormous pressure – the initial hope was to wait until September, but the architects and so on wanted it to be as early as possible, even earlier than June. The determining factor was the Academy of Ancient Music concert on 2 June, which was already on sale.

“The live programme will be very much smaller than it is at the moment”

AJ: Is there any aspect of the operation that won’t be affected?

CM: The education work will continue pretty much as normal, because most of that takes place outside of this building anyway, so it will be least affected. The aim with the cinema programme is to use HI~Arts original Screen Machine at a location to be confirmed, since Screen Machine 2 should be in operation by then.

AJ: But there will be nothing going on in the building at all?

CM: No. This is a huge construction programme, and basically the only way for them to get on with it was for us to get completely out.

AJ: What kind of alternative programming are you looking at for music and theatre and so on?

CM: There is no doubt that this is the hardest part of it for us to cope with. The live programme will be very much smaller than it is at the moment, probably four or five performances a month in a variety of venues, including places like the Spectrum Theatre, Florians Theatre, and Strathpeffer. That will be a mixture of one-off events in Inverness, and things that we are more or less touring, using venues around the Highlands, with particular focus on Highland Council Community School venues like Drumnadrochit and Ullapool and Strontian.

“The experience with theatres that have closed and re-opened is that when they re-open the audiences go up – the real test is what happens in year two”

AJ: What will happen to the Orchestral season?

CM: That is the bit that I really don’t think we can save during the period we are closed. I think we will be able to find suitable alternative venues for the Scottish Ensemble, but the bigger orchestras are more of a problem. We may do something with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, but probably just once. Large scale opera and ballet will also have to go, but everything else we feel we can find homes for – we already have committed to Scottish Dance Theatre for November, for example, and we are hoping that we can do something with Scottish Ballet.

AJ: How concerned are you about picking up where you left off when the new building opens?

CM: The experience with theatres that have closed and re-opened is that when they re-open the audiences go up – the real test is what happens in year two. I have fewer concerns about 2007 onwards than I do about the 18 months coming up now, because that is taking us into the unknown in so many respects.

AJ: Is there any point where you will be doing no shows at all?

CM: I suspect there will be a gap for a couple of months after we close in the summer, and the same before we re-open.

AJ: Any chance of an early completion?

CM: There is no chance of being finished earlier than our hoped for target of the panto at the end of 2006, and I think even with that target, we will probably not open the new areas until after Christmas anyway. It may be two or three months before we bring everything on stream.

AJ: Will your current appeal for funding contributions from the general public carry on after the theatre closes?
 
CM: The appeal fund is ongoing and crucial, and will continue right through the work until we reach the target of the £2 million we need to raise.

“The building was falling apart, and not doing something was tantamount to accepting the end of Eden Court”

AJ: How difficult has this process been for you personally?

CM: Absolutely terrifying, and really hard work. It takes up many, many hours of my time in a week – a project like this constantly runs up against problems no matter how efficiently it is run. It is a very sharp learning curve, and the crucial thing is to have a professional team that really knows what they are doing.

AJ: Do people keep mentioning the Scottish Parliament?

CM: You can’t suggest the costs have gone up by a fiver without somebody invoking it, but this is a very different kind of project. It is a complicated one, though, marrying together two very different existing buildings with a third new build, and that has made costing and planning difficult. We have been lucky in the fact that our chairman, Douglas Yule, has a building background – he has undoubtedly been the right man in the right place at the right time, and he is a great source of confidence as well as expertise. He is not a man that is easily panicked.

AJ: Could the project have been done for less money, or even left alone?

CM: There really was no £10 million option – there was nothing that we could have done for that money that would have made a significant change to the building that people would have felt was worth that amount of money. At the same time, leaving well alone wasn’t an option either – the building was falling apart, and not doing something was tantamount to accepting the end of Eden Court.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2005