Wednesday night's gala pantomime performance marked the 50th anniversary of the 'new' Nottingham Playhouse. Jeremy Lewis found some deserving guests in the stalls...
IT was fanfares and black ties when Nottingham Playhouse moved into its new theatre on December 11, 1963.
After watching John Neville star in Tyrone Guthrie's inaugural production of Coriolanus, the great and the good – including guest-of-honour Lord Snowdon – made their way to the Council House for a celebratory buffet.
More of that later. First, let's compare the VIP-led bunfight of 1963 with last night's golden anniversary celebrations.
Yes, last night's guests at the gala performance of Jack and the Beanstalk included celebrated writers like William Ivory and Michael Eaton.
But they also included unheralded volunteers and clients of charities like the Canaan Trust, which provides hostel accommodation for homeless men.
"It's wonderful to be thought of like this," said the charity's project manager Kevin Curtis. "It's great for our clients to be share in a light-hearted experience with everyone else."
The Canaan Trust was one of the top five organisations in the Post's Cash for Your Community campaign, run with building society The Nottingham.
Thanks to the generosity of the Playhouse we were able to give 20 tickets to each of the five – the others were Age Concern Carlton, LAPS Lions & Princesses, East Midlands Cheerleading Academy and New Life Friendship Club.
Tracey Pearson of Carlton Age Concern said: "A lot of our volunteers are in their 60s and 70s so it will be a great night out for them."
In keeping with the mood of generosity, the gala and auction were also about sustaining the theatre's 50:50 Appeal.
Theatregoers are asked to donate £8 on top of their ticket to enable people who cannot afford it to watch a Playhouse production.
So far, more than 1,000 tickets have been set aside for beneficiaries such as Nottinghamshire Clubs for Young People.
"The young people we work with are from some of the most disadvantaged areas and very often from deprived backgrounds," said NCYP senior manager Lisa Barker.
"These tickets will be given as rewards for good behaviour or as a treat for young people who have supported the association."
Last night's gala audience was treated to the work of one of the stand-out figures in the history of a theatre whose performers have included not only John Neville but also Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench, Emanuelle Beart, Jonathan Pryce, Tom Wilkinson, Leo McKern, Gemma Jones, Alison Steadman and Sir Antony Sher.
When Kenneth Alan Taylor was artistic director in the 1980s he inaugurated the annual pantomime. Every year he has returned to write and direct the show and usually to star in it, too.
In fact Jack and the Beanstalk could be your last chance to see, in panto frocks, the director who is deadly serious about his work but never lets it show in public. "It's the first 'green' panto," as he tends to say. "It's just recycled rubbish!"
The contrasts with 1963 are not lost on the theatre's current artistic director, Giles Croft.
"I was watching our production of Rapunzel in the studio theatre and it was being enjoyed by 90 children from all sorts of backgrounds," he said.
"You suddenly realise that the city is a completely different place to what it was 50 years ago and it's right that we should celebrate that, not what we were then."
Talking of which, the opening night buffet in 1963 really was a bunfight.
The VIPs were first to the goodies while Neville and company wiped off the greasepaint and freshened up for the reception. But when the tired troupe arrived at the Council House, only crumbs remained.
Neville, speaking in 1999, recalled: "The food was almost gone and it was difficult to get a drink. Tyrone Guthrie tapped an official on the shoulder – Guthrie was 6ft 5in, by the way – and he said: 'Young man, you are treating us like servants. It isn't comely'. Comely! A lovely word, that.
"It wasn't witnessed by a lot of people but one of our technicians had an altercation with one of the council people."
There are no altercations to report today as the Playhouse begins its second half-century.
Jack and the Beanstalk continues until January 18. Rapunzel continues in the Neville Studio until January 4. Box office and details: 0115 941 9419, www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
How the Playhouse became a Nottingham institution... 1948: Nottingham Playhouse opens at the old Little Theatre in Goldsmith Street. The first resident producer, Andre van Gyseghem, directs Shaw's Man and Superman. 1953: The 100th production: The Two Gentlemen of Verona. 1958: The city council votes to fund a municipal theatre in East Circus Street at an estimated cost of £200,000. Peter Moro is commissioned to design it. 1960: After a two-hour debate, Conservatives narrowly fail to get the project scrapped. Had three absent councillors attended, they would have succeeded. 1962: Tour of West Africa, including the RSC's rising talent Judi Dench and Old Vic star Paul Daneman. 1963: The new Nottingham Playhouse opens, under co-directors John Neville, Frank Dunlop and Peter Ustinov and John Neville, who takes the title role in the first production, Coriolanus.
How the Playhouse became a Nottingham institution... 1948: Nottingham Playhouse opens at the old Little Theatre in Goldsmith Street. The first resident producer, Andre van Gyseghem, directs Shaw's Man and Superman. 1953: The 100th production: The Two Gentlemen of Verona. 1958: The city council votes to fund a municipal theatre in East Circus Street at an estimated cost of £200,000. Peter Moro is commissioned to design it. 1960: After a two-hour debate, Conservatives narrowly fail to get the project scrapped. Had three absent councillors attended, they would have succeeded. 1962: Tour of West Africa, including the RSC's rising talent Judi Dench and Old Vic star Paul Daneman. 1963: The new Nottingham Playhouse opens, under co-directors John Neville, Frank Dunlop and Peter Ustinov and John Neville, who takes the title role in the first production, Coriolanus.
