we took the opportunity of the heritage open days to get a look behind-the-scenes at scarborough’s futurist theatre. in truth, there’s not actually that much behind the scenes and that’s one of the problems the theatre has - it has an auditorium large enough to attract big acts [it seats 2000+ which, i think, makes it the biggest cinema auditorium in britain] but it doesn’t have the capability to host some of the big touring shows any more. that’s because it was originally built just as a cinema in the 20’s and adapted to house theatre productions only in 1958. all the sets have to go in through the front lobby and a rather small door onto the stage. there are no wings to speak of and the dressing rooms belong to another age. [interesting factlet: the bachelors, too busy to get to a proper recording studio, recorded their album 'under and over' in the futurist's dressing rooms in 1967.]

i took photos [on camerafone so a bit grainy] of the signage we encountered on the tour which charts the history of the building, from 1921 to present [click on the little pics to see a bigger version]:

the futurist’s future is scarborough’s hot topic. the building is owned by the council and although the current programming is bucking the trend after decades of neglect by previous owners, the building is in need of a big rethink. a decision will be made shortly as to its future - the council have promised that no matter what there will be a theatre on the site, but current research suggests that refurbishment will cost nearly twice as much as demolition and a new building. although it would be a shame for this grand old lady to be flattened, the auditorium itself isn’t architecturally anything that special other than that it’s big and old. if a rebuild gave scarborough opportunity to host bigger and better shows, then it’s a persuasive argument.

the frontage however is a different matter. a rather hideous false front was added in the 1960s[?] hiding the glorious 1920s marble frontage. we got a peek behind the frontage and it looks it good shape, minus the cherubs which got lopped off in order to fit the facade. scarborough can perhaps learn two things from its neighboring cities of leeds and bradford: one is not to let iconic buildings rot like bradford has with the odeon, and two is to keep your beautiful building frontages and build modern buildings onto the back of them like leeds has done. [dull electric angel factlet: i drew the illustrations for what is regarded as the textbook on how to preserve and re-use building facades.]

someone on the tour was muttering about getting the building listed. best get a move on…

[pics below: the original frontage behind the facade; peek into the shadows and see a relic of the un-pc seaside shows of the past - a black & white minstrel; family shot in a dressing room mirror - smell the greasepaint!]