Review by Kenny Mathieson
Eden Court Reopening
Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, 3 November 2007
Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain
IT CANNOT be often that the voiceover advising us that we mustn’t take photographs or recordings gets a round of applause, but it was that kind of night at the long awaited and much anticipated re-opening of the major theatre venue in the Highlands and Islands.
The stimulus for that particular outbreak of clapping was the words “welcome back to Eden Court”, but it was only the first of many.
Before the capacity audience even entered the Empire Theatre (the new moniker for the old main auditorium), they were served free bubbly, admired the artworks (more on the Eden Court art project coming soon) and wandered in and out of the new spaces, the OneTouch Theatre, the La Scala and Playhouse cinemas, and the Jim Love Studio (the latter restricted to a peek from the doorway – no outdoor shoes clumping across the pristine floors).
The evening might have been expected to begin with speeches, but Colin Marr had decided that the first thing we would see on the stage would be artists, and the safety curtain rose to reveal Ali Bain and Phil Cunningham already seated and ready to sound the first notes in the new building, just as they sounded the last back in June 2005 when this enormous project began.
They were a failsafe choice as the opening performers, and turned in their usual virtuoso set of original tunes and traditional airs, reels, jigs and waltzes from all the airts, complete with the usual wisecracking and mandatory leavening of Fergie MacDonald stories.
This pair are always stars, but the real star of this show was the building itself. The entrance has been transformed, the foyer, restaurant and main bar area is now open-plan and infinitely more welcoming, the ladies toilets are apparently a wonder (no, I sent in my spy), and the whole place has an airy spaciousness and pleasing flow that was never part of the original building.
The speeches and thanks duly came after the interval, and the applause for all four platform speakers – Douglas Yule, Colin Marr, and two young aspiring performers, Imogen and Malcolm – was genuine and thoroughly deserved.
There will doubtless be teething problems for a time, but it was both a relief and a joy to see how successful the rebuild has been. There are exciting times ahead as Colin Marr develops the new programming possibilities open to him in this splendidly re-born venue.
© Kenny Mathieson, 2007
