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The
imposing Canterbury building where since 1933 generations of people
have laughed, cried and been thoroughly entertained is no more.
The KM Group's Helen Geraghty hears some
memories of the well-worn building that was the Friars cinema and
the Odeon and until the bulldozers smash it down, is the Marlowe
Theatre.
It was wartime, and a young boy stood on the cinema steps as he
left the 1939 film Gone With the Wind with his mother.
As he stepped outside into the night air and stood on the top of
the flight of stone steps a Messerschmitt fighter swept the length
of Canterbury High Street.
The boy is now an old man and, standing on the steps again in
2009, he has said goodbye to the building.
It survived the war in tact, but it is bulldozers that will be
coming to flatten it this summer, in preparation for a modern,
purpose-built building due to open in late summer 2011.
Those steps – too tricky for the elderly and the disabled – and
the heavy wooden doors are just part of the problem. This funny old
relic just doesn't top the bill any more.
The Marlowe Theatre,
in the Friars, Canterbury, was originally built as a cinema called
The Friars in 1933, but was renamed the Odeon Cinema in 1946. The
Odeon Cinema was then converted by owners Canterbury City Council
into a theatre in 1984.
In 1944, the Marlowe, rather than London’s Leicester Square, was
the scene of the glitzy world premiere of the film the Canterbury
Tales, as the film makers wanted to thank local people for their
help during filming.
But the existing 1,000 seat auditorium is considered too small
to attract large ambitious productions, such as international
ballet and opera.
The building simply struggled to adapt to the demands of
theatrical productions. The popular coffee shop, created from the
space beneath audience seating, was low-ceilinged and
windowless.
Memories have been laid thick and fast at the door of theatre
director Mark Everett. He said: "I have heard quite a few tales of
the past, all of them fascinating. We do have customers who go back
for a long time and I love to hear them talk about the past.
"Like the elderly chap
who was leaving a performance and he said to me he had always lived
in the Canterbury area.
"He pointed at the step we were standing on, at the front of the
theatre and said he had been standing on that very step after
coming out of the theatre, when a Messerschmitt went right down the
High Street.
"There are most certainly a wealth of memories in this building.
Something I will miss about it is the wonderful cloud scenery
effect in the auditorium, put in by theatre designer Roger Butlin.
It is as if you are looking over into this cloudscape. One of the
first things I did was to change around the foyer to make it more
open. Then we got a local artist to do clouds in the foyer.
"But something I will be glad to see the back of are the steps
and the doors into the theatre. They are unwelcoming and are
difficult for elderly people and the disabled. You can't see into
the building as you approach it."
One of the great features of the new theatre will be its
welcoming and open glass frontage.
The building as
we know it is actually the second to be known as the Marlowe
Theatre. The first, situated on St Margaret's Street, was
demolished to make way for the Marlowe Arcade.
Like its successor, the theatre was named after the playwright
Christopher Marlowe, who was born and educated in Canterbury in the
1500s.
The 19th century statue in front of the building is in honour of
Marlowe and features a muse, or inspiration, surrounded by small
effigies of characters from Marlowe plays. In 1593, after a day of
drinking with three friends, Marlowe was stabbed in the eye, with
his own dagger.
Mr Everett said storing equipment was a major exercise that was
like moving house hundreds of times over. He said: "A lot of the
lighting and that sort of equipment will stay and has to be very
carefully stored.
"The Marlowe memorial
will be able to stay where it is, but the mask sculpture at the
front of the building will have to taken down and stored."
The new project will cost £25.6million. £19.5million is coming in grants from Canterbury City Council, Kent County Council and SEEDA. This leaves around £6million to be raised from private and public campaigns. Productions will continue in alternative venues.
The new venue will have a 1,200 seat auditiorium and also a
150-seater smaller space. There will be bars and foyers on three
floors and even a piazza for outdoor events.
Mr Everett said professional advice was that despite the economic crisis the money would be raised. The Friends of the Marlowe is the biggest theatre friends organisation in the country – tickets for Night of a Thousand Stars, the theatre’s final gala performance sold out in two days.
The closure has meant redundancies among the seventy staff, some
casuals and part-time. A core management team will remain, although
it is thought likely that some of the staff will apply for jobs at
the new theatre.
Mr Everett said: "I would be very surprised if when the new
Marlowe opens, there aren't quite a few familiar faces."
More than a 100 members of the public went to the Guildhall to see
the council vote in favour of the redevelopment.
Vanessa Redgrave, John Altman, Shane Ritchie, Martine
McCutcheon, Kathy Staff, Dave Lee and Toyah Wilcox, all have graced
the stage at the Marlowe Theatre.
Stand-up comedian, Charlie Chester, who died in 1997, was seen
there.
And when Nigel Havers starred in Rebecca, the theatre's
biggest-selling drama, tickets sold out in a few days.
Jenny Kicks, stage door keeper, 62, recalled: "The funniest and
loveliest one was Dawn French.
"I had to let her into the car park and there was a delay. She
wasn't at all self-important, she just waited her turn,
smiling.
"You can never guess what the stars will be like until you meet
them."
Jill Robin views the
pictures of the stars at the Marlowe
Jill first came to work at the building as an usherette when it
opened as a theatre in 1984.
She remembers walking down the aisles with her tray of ice
creams.
"I found it a bit embarrassing, as children used to hang on to
the tray. I did front of house for several years, which enabled me
to see wonderful pantos and shows, then the theatre needed a stage
door keeper, so that was me.
"The actors all work hard, I'm not very starstruck in that way.
They are just nice people doing a job."
Jill added: "I shall miss it. It has been a sort of home for
many people. Some stars are lovely, or complicated and sometimes,
you heard they would be appalling and then they weren't."
More recently, Jill has run an art exhibition known as Corridor
Arts at the theatre.
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