REDGRAVE ACTION GROUP
the campaigning arm of the New Farnham Repertory Company
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...and the REDGRAVE THEATRE
A TALE OF BAD DECISIONS (and the odd good one)
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The Regrave today: boarded up and left to rot.
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| Waverley Borough Council
is the local authority with responsibility for services and spending in
the south-west corner of the county of Surrey. It covers the area around
just four towns, Godalming, Cranleigh, Haslemere and Farnham, of which
Farnham is the largest. For the record, here are the decisions, good and bad, Waverley has made that have affected professional theatre in Farnham. . . |
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Waverley: Bad Decision 1
..... was made in 1996 when Waverley supported the choice of a television executive as the Redgrave Theatre's director. This followed the change in artistic policy at the theatre in 1988 when an inexperienced artistic director and board of directors departed from its highly successful repertory programme. The new productions were too expensive and broke the premise upon which the Redgrave had been founded in 1974. Local audiences found the programmes unappealing and stayed away, and the theatre closed in 1998. Waverley funded this ill-conceived operation to the tune of £400,000 and burned its fingers.
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Waverley: Bad Decision 2
In 1998 Waverley formed a task force to create an arts strategy for the town, but refused to consult the Redgrave Theatre's supporters, putting all its eggs into the Farnham Maltings basket instead. (The Maltings is the town's arts and community centre.) In rejecting the Redgrave, the council claimed . . ."Farnham does not want a theatre" - a travesty of the truth.
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Waverley: Bad Decision 3
...followed the formation of the New Farnham Repertory Company, which offered to present a 15 week season in the Redgrave Theatre and a 12-week season outside the theatre in Brightwell Gardens. Waverley Borough Council turned down both of the NFRC's offers because, had the seasons been successful, the Council's false claim that Farnham does not want a theatre would thus have been revealed as completely flawed.
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Waverley: Bad Decision 4
. . . followed the submission of a business plan by the New Farnham Repertory Company to run the Redgrave Theatre. The NFRC's plan was rejected without discussion, consultation or negotiation - ostensibly for financial reasons; in reality for political ones.
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Waverley: Bad Decision 5
Meanwhile, plans have been emerging to redevelop the East Street site on which the Redgrave Theatre stands. A developer has been chosen, Crest Nicholson Sainsbury (CNS). Sainsbury’s (coincidentally?) happens to have a store on the site. CNS has drawn up plans in consultation with Waverley. Waverley has been very secretive and is refusing to reveal details of the conditional contract it has signed with the developers; but, as far as can be ascertained, the council decided that the main aim of the East Street redevelopment should be to make as much money as possible from the scheme to fund a sports centre in Godalming and other projects in the borough.
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Waverley: Bad Decision 6
In the plans to redevelop the East Street site the Redgrave Theatre is scheduled to be demolished. This decision was taken by the council then in power and has since been re-affirmed by the Liberal Democrats, the party currently in control of the council.
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Waverley:
Bad Decision 7
Waverley has boarded up the theatre to allow it to appear derelict, thus encouraging the public to think it is not worth saving. |
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Waverley: Good Decision 1
In 2000 the council offered £20,000 funding for the New Farnham Repertory Company's three-play season in the Library Gardens, which helped present the borough's biggest millennium arts project, consisting of over 40 performances of 3 plays and 3 one-night extras. The season was spread over 5 weeks and was financially and artistically successful. In 2002, 2003 and 2004, further grants were given for the seasons in Brightwell Gardens.
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Waverley: Good Decision 2
The Lib-Dem members of the Council took the decision to look for a theatre space in Farnham. It has taken five years, three seasons of plays, a petition of 7,200 signatures, countless letters and endless campaigning, for the newly elected council of 2003 to announce it would support and encourage the search for a new theatre space in Farnham - thereby conceding the point that Farnham does want theatre.
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Waverley-appointed developers Crest/Nicholson, initially indicated that they would keep the Redgrave in the new plan for redeveloping East Street if Waverley gives them the go-ahead. Sadly, they did not come through with this intention: their questionnaire to the townspeople, explaining their plans and canvassing responses, failed to mention that the Redgrave would be demolished if their scheme went ahead.
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Malcolm Rennie, professional actor and founder member of NFRC: Recently, Ken Dodd wrote, "There is a basic human hunger for artistic communication; a natural desire for entertainment and intellectual stimulation, and a fascination in watching human beings act out our comedies and tragedies. I feel that revisiting a theatre is like renewing a relationship with a very precious member of the family, and similarly, it is like being bereaved when one hears of a theatre being closed." Unfortunately, we are unlikely to hear similar sentiments from Waverley Borough Council. From the depths of their unimaginative parochialism they wish to demolish one of Britain's finest medium size auditoriums. As Oscar Wilde noted of similar types over a hundred years ago, 'They know the price of everything and the value of nothing'.
If Waverley succeeds in demolishing the Redgrave, it will be the first council in the country to destroy a modern purpose built theatre without providing an equivalent replacement, and will have committed the biggest act of cultural vandalism ever perpetrated on Farnham. |
