Culture: Gala is Winning the Battle of Box Office

By David Whetstone

THE Gala Theatre and Cinema in Durham announced its autumn programme this week with Simon Stallworthy, director since 2005, upbeat about the quality of what’s in store.

Many well-known names will leap out at you.

Musical offerings include Rachel Unthank & The Winterset (recently shortlisted for the Nationwide Mercury Prize), Kate Rusby, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, classical guitarist John Williams and opera singer Suzannah Clarke.

Comedy’s well represented by the likes of Jeremy Hardy, Rich Hall and the multi-talented Andy Hamilton who is offering "an evening of jokes, stories, gossip, music, cash prizes, nudity and trampolining".

Under the theatre heading, there’s Prunella Scales in Gertrude’s Secret and Joan Littlewood’s classic Oh What A Lovely War!

More importantly, though, there’s the next in a lengthening line of home-produced new shows. Get off at Gateshead is the latest from playwright Ian Skelton, originally from Chester-le-Street, who got his stage break at the Gala last year with Beamish Boy. The new play tells the story of a couple who used to meet in the middle of the Tyne Bridge.

You could be cynical and regard Simon Stallworthy’s enthusiasm for the new Gala programme as inevitable.

But you can hardly begrudge him his excitement. It isn’t very long ago since any mention of The Gala in a newspaper was followed by a reminder of past mistakes and misfortunes.

Since May 2001, when London-based The Entertainment Team unveiled their exciting – and, in retrospect, overblown – plans for the place, a lot of water has passed under the bridge, some of it distinctly murky.

In recent years, however, the mood has been positive.

Despite a gradually reducing subsidy from Durham City Council, turnover has increased from pounds 2.2m to pounds 2.6m over the last three years.

Annual visits to the Gala complex now number 400,000 with the audience for live theatre standing at 96,000 (including 20,000 for the panto) and 89,000 buying cinema tickets.

Simon points out his background, working for Hull Truck Theatre Company, on a BBC project which involved ordinary people making films and as script editor on Coronation Street.

"This is my background and it shows that what I’ve always been interested in is things that people want to see. That’s why I wanted to work on Coronation Street, because it’s watched by 15 million people a week.

"And people either love John Godber (founder of Hull Truck, famous for the evergreen Bouncers) or they don’t, but his shows sell out in places where other things bomb."

Simon says a lot of people are frightened to talk about populism."It can make some people start to assume that the quality of what you are doing is not as good. But that needn’t be the case. The challenge is creating a popular programme that you can still be proud of."

The number of theatre shows premiered by The Gala is a sign of growing self-confidence, asserts Simon.

The Likely Lads, staged for the first time in Durham earlier this year, was seen by 6,000 people and is to embark on a national tour next year.

Also, for the first time, The Gala is mounting its own panto, Aladdin.

Simon is writing and directing it himself. In fact, he has just started writing it this week, using 12-year-old daughter Emily as a sounding board.

"I’ve watched lots of shows with her and I know when she’s bored."

You wonder how he finds the time to write while running a venue. "Six thirty to nine in the morning is my panto writing time," he says.

At least he has his cast in place and is able to write to their strengths. He is determined to make North East actor Donald McBride a Dame of distinction.

An inveterate storyteller, Simon, whose website is called storymatters.co.uk, has plenty of other projects up his sleeve.

He is currently enthused about a plan to mount a stage production of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small and has also had preliminary talks with folk singer Kate Rusby about writing a musical based on her songs.

The new Gala season begins on August 20 with Me & My Girl presented by Dionysis Theatre Company, one of the regional amateur companies whose involvement Simon also regards as crucial to the venue’s success.

For the full Gala programme, visit www.galadurham.co.uk or tel (0191) 332-4041.

"The challenge of the Gala is in creating a popular programme that you can still be proud of

(c) 2008 The Journal – Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.