Hackney Empire to shut in January

Hackney Empire to shut in January

24 September, 2009
by: Spoonfed Team

This year’s Christmas pantomime at the Hackney Empire, a regular
fixture in the festive calendar, will be a painfully poignant one. The
East End venue - which dates back to 1901 and is London’s premier
variety theatre – has become the latest victim of the ailing economy
and will close in January 2010 for about nine months due to financial
woes. The curtains come down on the main theatre programme after this
season’s panto Aladdin finishes its run, with most staff to be made
redundant.

Signs of trouble surfaced last month, when its artistic director and
chief executive Simon Thomsett was replaced by interim boss Clarie
Middleton. Middleton had previously acted as a consultant with
similarly-strapped theatres like the Bristol Old Vic, which shut
temporarily in 2007. The Empire is calling the snap closure a ‘period
of reflection’, with Middleton saying: ‘The idea is that we stop, take
a breath and take stock of the way the organisation operates... If we
were to keep on working, we wouldn’t have time to stock take and
perhaps look again at the way we sell tickets, different marketing
techniques, different programming perhaps.’ Participation and youth
work at the venue will continue.

Theatre-lovers who fear they might be seeing the last of this cultural
institution can still catch a stellar-line up of shows over the next
few months. Highlights include stand-up by Jimmy Carr, a Tennesee
Williams triple bill and an ABBA sing-a-long extravaganza.

For more information on shows at the Hackney Empire, click here.

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SL

Spoonfed Team