Future acts

He talks to VIV HARDWICK about the fast-approaching £5.2m rebuild and what's around the corner for Tyneside's most attractive venue.

FAR from worrying about going dark for three months from July, Newcastle Theatre Royal new boss Philip Bernays admits he's currently turning down touring musicals for 2007. With most of the £5.2 million redevelopment cash raised, plans are on course to widen the 170-yearold venue's stage area, add better flying facilities and create a cultural centre in the heart of the city's commercial bustle.

But the theatre's executive director vows the stage will be back in action by October and ready to receive the highly lucrative Royal Shakespeare Company annual season in November. He says: "It's a hugely exciting development, so keeping people informed is absolutely critical. From May of 2006 until May of 2007 we will have bits of hoarding around the place and we won't have any catering at that time.

"We'll have less convenient access to the toilets at that time to put it delicately but we're not going to be shut so it's very much business as usual. We are all going to have to adapt to the slight chaos that it will bring but it will be fun watching the building evolve and develop."

He feels enough planning has been put in place to ensure that building work on the stage area won't over-run and Bernays adds: "But I'm not sitting here saying 'oh no I'm prepared to cancel the first month of performances' because I'm not prepared to cancel."

The Theatre Royal and nearby Northern Stage and Live Theatre are all in the position of rebuilding venues, with the former two anxious to have them ready for the RSC tour in November.

Bernays recognises the dangers here and says: "There is a risk involved but we are doing everything possible to minimise that risk. It is interesting that Newcastle will be without three theatres for a period of time, perhaps not the greatest strategic planning. We've all been talking about these projects for the past ten years but the fact they're all happening at the same time is probably unheard of anywhere else in the country."

HOW does he react to the suggestion that the Theatre Royal has been pushed into undertaking the project to reinforce its position as the region's A-list theatre?

"I suppose I would say that I didn't know we weren't the region's A-list theatre but what it will do is greatly improve our facilities; improve corporate use and enlarge the community education work we do.

"We haven't yet found a name for it, but we are creating a visitor centre allowing us to re-position the box office next to a bistro open from 8am until 11pm, with sofas and armchairs with a more formal eating area. There'll be wireless internet access, plasma screens and plenty of information. The idea is to make the theatre even more of a cultural centre than it is now.

"One of the things I've discovered in my short time here is that the theatre royal is a signpost by which visitors are directed and we want to make use of that and while people are going past, let's welcome them in and actually ensure they make use of this fabulous building."

WHILE the public won't notice too many changes on stage, the effects on future shows will be considerable.

"We have quite a big stage which the public can see but what they can't see is that the wing space on the right-hand side is very small and when sets are taken off they usually end up in lorries outside.

There will be less of that happening and dancers won't have to slow down as they hurtle across the stage in case they go splat into a wall on that side. He admits that the theatre still wouldn't be competing with Sunderland's Empire Theatre for the megamillion touring musicals like Starlight Express and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. "We won't take shows like that because we're still not as big as Sunderland. We'll never take the biggest West End shows, but that's fine because Sunderland takes them and we have the Royal Shakespeare Company, Opera North and Ballet Rambert and the very best of stage musicals rather than spectacle musicals."

One change Bernays is promising is a move towards more spoken word performances on stage. He says: "I hate the nights where there's nothing on, so there will be occasions where there will be more examples of stand-up comedy, statesmen on tour and perhaps literature. We're not looking to move into the territory of The Sage or City Hall but there is likely to be performance poets on stage in future."

As for the mainstays of new programmes, he comments: "I think that there are trends and at the moment we are going into a musicals trend with more musicals than we know what to do with. The bubble will burst because there will be too many musicals and we won't be able to book them all. Drama is a little thinner on the ground this year and I do believe in having a balanced programme so I'm currently turning musicals down in 2007. That's a ridiculous situation as its only the beginning of 2006."

On the personal side of finding his feet in Tyneside, Bernays comments: "I'm having a splendid time, it's a lovely theatre, a fabulous city and a great region. My family are really enjoying Newcastle and my wife works next-door to the Newcastle Academy (the city's latest rock music venue) for the Heritage Lottery Fund on the small grants scheme - having transferred from Cheltenham. For the first time it has brought us into contact professionally and I asked her if we were eligible to apply for a small grant and she said 'don't talk to me, talk to somebody else'."

As the former boss of Cheltenham's theatre he reveals that Newcastle Theatre Royal, Bath Theatre Royal and Richmond Theatre always produced brochures of shows that theatre managers wanted to go and see.

He says: "I hope that is still true and that our programme is one of the best in the country."