The Playhouse Years

The Society had £2,200 in hand and a public appeal brought in £1,000. Kidderminster Corporation and the Arts Council helped and the theatre opened as The Playhouse, its capacity reduced to 650 seats, in November 1946. It was just about £11,000 in debt.

The story of the struggles of the next 22 years has been told before and a new generation of playgoers will not want another crisis-by-crisis account. But it is worth remembering that this was the austerity age, when there was no real competition from television, the music halls were still thriving, the best seat in the house was 25p or less and hosts of actors were travelling the country, glad to work all hours for £10 a week land rather less for the junior recruits).

It was a first principle of Kenneth Rose's philosophy that the amateur's greatest merit in the theatre was the cheapness of his labour. A true amateur himself, he believed that the function of the theatre was to sponsor the best professional work it could afford.

Sometimes ambition overreached itself, as in a glorious fortnight in 1949, when a touring opera company with a sizeable orchestra brought in some star names, delighted packed houses and lost all of £700. But about that time the Arts Council converted a £3,000 loan into a grant and the debt was being reduced.

The Midland Theatre Company directed by Michael Langham opened the Playhouse and set a high standard of professional drama, kept up by its successor, the theatre's own weekly repertory company, directed by the first manager, Jack Wood, and later by Robert Gaston. Myra Barron and the late Humphrey Heathcote were among the public favourites and there was also work of exceptional quality by the touring Young Vic Company.

The outstanding debt was cleared for the fifth anniversary in 1951 but that was largely a book-keeping transaction and it was back in its accustomed place in the ledger by the end of the season in mid-1952.

Later that year the rep company included a young actor named John Osborne, who would sit typing in his dressing room when he was not on stage (one of his parts was Count Dracula). Only later did his friends discover that he had been writing Look Back in Anger, which struck the English theatre a blow from which it never recovered.

By the end of the 1955 season the professionals had to be paid off, business manager Michael Hulme among them. Robert Gaston became manager as well as director and the hatches were battened down for a season in which the doors were open for only 14 weeks. From then on it was make do and watch the pennies.

Later professional work resumed, on a small scale, including well-supported pantomimes and some rep directed by Colin Ford (now of the National Portrait Gallery) and for five seasons by Donald B. Edwards.

But the theatre was on the point of closing by 1964. Kenneth Rose adopted shock tactics, with whole page advertisements warning the public of the consequences of apathy, and the situation was saved by a whip round among local councils. It was hard going.

Then came the first news of the demolition plan; never a dull moment in those days. The Society even turned out in 18th century costume to present a protest petition to the Mayor at the Town Hall.

But the public inquiry into the use of the site came just three weeks before the final season opened in 1967. The drama was moving from the stage to the law courts.
 

Nonentities_dinner_1960.jpg 38.10 Kb

Warning_Closure.jpg 56.23 Kb