opened. After all these years we have lights, plays and an audience;
in fact, we have already been twice, for Uncle Vanya
and Visiting Mr Green.I am not sure exactly when I really got involved with the Kingston
Theatre project. It feels a long time ago. There was 'Claiming
the Space', the first event to raise awareness in Kingston of the new
theatre, and that must have been last century. I think it was 2001
that I joined the Friends' committee and took over editing the Friends
Newsletter StageWrite. The situation was frustrating - we have a
theatre - or rather the shell of a theatre - but no money to fit it out and
open the doors. The road has been long, and rather rocky. Leaders and
fundraisers have come and gone, and eventually it was left up to the council
to make it happen. Somewhere we picked up Sir Peter Hall as our guide
and guardian angel, and finally, 4 years after we first announced an opening
date, the doors of Kingston Theatre - the Rose Theatre (as the design is an
accurate reproduction of The Rose in Southwark, Shakespeare's original
theatre) - have finally
opened. After all these years we have lights, plays and an audience;
in fact, we have already been twice, for Uncle Vanya
and Visiting Mr Green.
It remains edgy stuff. The Rose has no subsidies from anyone (so at least we can't have them withdrawn!) and is still barely able to balance its books. I believe opening was a wild gamble and one I hope which will pay off handsomely. There is only a limited amount of time a theatre can stand empty and unloved. I find visiting the place fascinating. At one point I was doing regular guided tours of the 'shell'. telling everyone what it was going to look like... and now it does; almost like I said it would! The wine is drinkable and not over-priced, the (entirely volunteer) front of house staff a little nervous and seems quite difficult to get a programme. But you can never be more than 5 rows from the front and this cosy space actually sits around 1000. Clearly Kingston Theatre goers are provincial, however, not cosmopolitan; I notice at both performances so far the crowd does dress up...
So there we go. It is open, it has plays, it has other activities and people pay their money. It really is a dream (Robin Hutchinson and Frank Whately's) come true.
For further details, look at http://www.rosetheatrekingston.org/