Bad news from Derby where the Playhouse has been closed just as it was gearing up for what would almost certainly have been its most lucrative period of the year. A Christmas production of Treasure Island was to have run until January 26 and is believed to have already taken £200,000 in advance.
Rumours of financial crisis have been ongoing at the theatre for some time, and last week the board took the decision to put the company into liquidation, making over 60 employees redundant and making 22,000 ticket-holders creditors of theatre - after Derby Council refused to give the theatre a £40,000 cash advance on money that was due to be released to the theatre in the new year anyway. This despite the fact that the Arts Council had already pledged an advance of £70,000 and was prepared to offer a further advance if the council came up with its advance. Apparently artistic director Stephen Edwards had previously offered to dip into his own pocket to keep the theatre going, which the board refused as Edwards wanted the loan to be guaranteed against the theatre's lease. There has been at least one resignation from the board of trustees in recent weeks.
A company cannot continue to trade while insolvent and its directors would be personally liable if it continued to do so. But the council's refusal to advance money does look curious, particularly as it now seems that Derby Playhouse has not gone into liquidation as first stated, but administration and there are attempts to sell the business as a going concern. Both the council itself and Stephen Edwards are apparently putting in bids. If administration had happened in the first place, Treasure Island could have gone ahead, bringing much-needed revenue into the theatre and allowing staff to keep their jobs while a buyer was sought or a rescue package worked out. Instead the theatre has been closed and the staff let go, which makes it harder to ever start again.
Clearly relations between Edwards and the council are at rock bottom and trust has completely broken down on both sides. It is the people of Derby and those working at the theatre who are the real losers in this sorry debacle. There has been mudslinging on both sides with rumours that the theatre has been mismanaged, and that the council has darker motives and wants the theatre to cease operating so that the site - in a prime position in the new £340m Westfield shopping centre - can be developed as retail, perhaps for a major department store. The freehold of the theatre was sold to Westfield by the council back in 1999, and you do wonder why they would want to buy it unless they were confident that at some point in the future they would be able to capitalise on their investment. As long as the theatre continues to operate, its lease is protected. The council says it is committed to theatre in Derby but the wording is interesting because it is not a commitment to Derby Playhouse.
Edwards claims that the Playhouse has faced huge financial difficulties over the last two years while the shopping centre has been developed. The theatre has been at the centre of an enormous building site and faced problems including rat infestation and sewerage as a result of the building work. For long periods the theatre car park has been closed. Edwards points to the fact that although ticket sales have been down for previous productions, when the last production Stepping Out coincided with the reopening of the new shopping centre it did 72% box office. On the other hand, it seems that the theatre has already had substantial advances on its grants from both the council and the arts council over the current financial year and also moved slowly in coming up with an agreement to work out a plan for reintegrating amateur and community groups into the theatre programme.
After the debacle at the Old Vic in Bristol where the board also voted to close the theatre (and as yet have not announced plans for its reopening), what's happened at Derby is another reminder that producing theatre itself is the casualty when the relationship between artistic directors and boards come under strain. It is also an indicator of the difficult times ahead for regional theatres, many of which have as major stakeholders local councils who are facing their own financial difficulties.
I hope very much that when the smoke clears Derby Playhouse can be saved for the region, but with rumours that a number of our regional theatres are on their knees, we might have to accept that the network of regional repertory theatres set up at the beginning of the 20th century is unlikely to thrive long into the current century. Only the most robust will survive, particularly as they can no longer be regularly bailed out by the Arts Council. But rather than wait for them to fall like tin soldiers, we need to look for new models for regional theatre that will best serve 21st-century theatre production and audiences.
