Arts Theatre closes prematurely
Story by Lizzie Guilfoyle
FOLLOWING the premature closure of two of its summer productions – The Two and Only and All Bob’s Women – the Arts Theatre has closed five months earlier than planned.
A two-year redevelopment of the block in which the Arts Theatre is housed is due to commence in January 2009. However, Westminster City Council planning laws state that the new complex must include a theatre.
And according to property developer Laurence Kirschel, it’s hoped that part of his £20 million overhaul will include a 317-capacity, state-of-the-art theatre complete with retractable seats. These, in turn, will give way to an open-plan space that could be used as an after-show lounge.
For as he recently told the Evening Standard, “The reason that theatres don’t make money is that they are closed more often than they are open. We would look at how we can transform the space into a useful area when it is not being used for a show.”
The Arts Theatre, built in 1927, started out as a theatre club in order to avoid the Lord Chamberlain’s stage censorship. Over the years it has hosted many UK and world premieres, including Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra and Jean Anouilh’s Waltz of the Toreadors, all directed by Peter Hall; Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker; Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane; O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh; and Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer.
In the year 2000, following more than a year of renovations, the Arts Theatre became a member of SOLT (Society of West End Theatres), since when it has hosted productions such as Gagarin Way, The Vagina Monologues, Happy Days, Bombshells, Tynan (with Corin Redgrave) and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.
It is currently under the management of programmer and producer Martin Witts.