Sophie Denney has become theatre director at Theatre Royal Brighton at a time of great excitement and challenge.
Taking over this summer from John Baldock who stepped down after 18 years at the venue, Sophie finds herself in charge of a venue in the midst of an extensive multi-million pound improvement project, including the restoration of the Grade II* façade, returning it to its original terracotta splendour, as well as upgrades to electrics, plumbing, wifi and seating.
Taking over this summer from John Baldock who stepped down after 18 years at the venue, Sophie finds herself in charge of a venue in the midst of an extensive multi-million pound improvement project, including the restoration of the Grade II* façade, returning it to its original terracotta splendour, as well as upgrades to electrics, plumbing, wifi and seating.
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FunTranscript
00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. A real
00:05 pleasure this afternoon to speak to Sophie Denny, who took over as the Director of Theatre
00:10 Royal Brighton in the summer, it was in the summer, wasn't it?
00:14 It was in the summer. It feels very much, a very small amount of time and a very long
00:21 amount of time at the same moment, almost.
00:23 But how have you settled in? It's such a beautiful, fascinating, historic, important theatre,
00:29 isn't it? And it's a responsibility to be taking over.
00:32 It is, it really is. And I think it's something that you don't necessarily fully appreciate
00:36 till you're actually sitting here. It's always been one of the theatres that I've loved most.
00:43 And it's certainly a role that I've been wanting to take up for many years.
00:48 Because you knew the theatre through working with the Ambassadors beforehand.
00:51 Exactly. It's been part of the bigger group. So somewhere that I visited a lot and have
00:56 known a fair few of the team as well in recent years. So I think there's certainly a feeling,
01:01 we often say this all the time, that you get different feelings of the overall overarching
01:05 culture of a theatre as you walk into it. And certainly that's what I've always experienced
01:10 coming here. And I think that's due to, you know, the city itself and the audiences that
01:15 we get, but the team and most importantly, the building, you know, it's 260 metres.
01:19 And part of the challenge for you is that you were hot-footed from a very, very different
01:23 kind of theatre, weren't you? Yes. Although I've worked in, you know, Frank
01:29 Matching or much older buildings, I came from Aylesbury Waterside, which was 12 years old,
01:36 so or 30, just about 10, 30. So lots of lifts, lots of storage, lots of modern amenities.
01:42 So you've added a couple of centuries here then, haven't you?
01:45 Absolutely, yes. Yeah, we really have gone back in time. But it is, I mean, you can see
01:50 behind me, it's the, you know, I don't know, the gloriousness, it's that real sort of traditional
01:58 theatre that I've missed. And it's certainly amazing to be back into a royal range.
02:03 Absolutely, she's a very grand old lady, but grand old ladies need a fair amount of looking
02:07 after, don't they? Very grand, yeah. And it's, you know, and
02:10 I think that's part of some of the, obviously, the vast amount of work that's happening this
02:13 year is to try and make sure we're restoring that back to that grandeur where we, you know,
02:18 where we can and... You've walked into a massive project, haven't
02:22 you? The facade, hoping to complete next year, next March, did you say?
02:28 Correct. Yeah, March, April, currently on track to, yeah, March, April. It is, it's
02:35 an equally daunting and equally exciting, you know, you come from my predecessors, spent
02:41 a large amount of time sort of waiting for this to happen. So you can never, you can't
02:45 be ever frustrated in any of the additional stresses it brings, because it's an amazing
02:51 opportunity for this venue to, like I say, have the facade back to the way it was almost
02:57 100 years ago, looking as beautiful and as new with all that terracotta, the terracotta
03:02 tiles are actually being laid as we speak. It's going to be fabulous, isn't it? But what
03:06 about the audiences? What's your impression so far of what Brighton likes, what Brighton
03:10 enjoys? It's so eclectic, and it is in regional theatre
03:15 really across the board. I think because of the fact that we are a traditional playhouse,
03:22 one of the things that we were so fortunate to get is, you know, and it comes with a traditional
03:27 sort of play audience, is some of the, you know, pre and post West End brilliant, fabulous
03:33 shows that we get. But alongside that, we also, you know, this season in particular,
03:38 you know, we have two weeks of everyone's talking about Jamie, we go into three weeks
03:42 of six, you know, some really, really big musicals, brilliant musicals, some phenomenal,
03:47 you know, Eddie Izzard is on our stage next week, you know, some really high end quality
03:53 individuals as well. So it's really different. And then every single show does have a different
03:58 audience. And I think Brighton as a whole is really eclectic. And it's the one thing
04:03 that I absolutely love about the area. And it's something I've noticed the most. I was
04:06 actually in a local pub last week with a friend on a Saturday. And she even said, everyone
04:13 in this pub is very different, different individuals, but everyone gets on and everyone respects
04:17 everyone's sort of space. And I think that's just really sort of Brighton at its core is
04:21 that it's all full of...
04:22 That's absolutely Brighton, isn't it? It's the most individual city there is.
04:26 Yeah, it's full of people, but everyone really respects it. And I think that's probably our
04:29 audiences as well, is that they all might be looking for a slightly different, whether
04:33 that be a show on stage or a different experience, but they're all very understanding and respectful
04:38 of that.
04:39 So as theatre director, do you get the chance to shape the programme?
04:43 Yeah, absolutely. So we work very closely with our sort of central programming team
04:48 that assists with that. And we make sure that we're out there seeing as much as possible
04:52 as well of shows. It's an exhausting but very, very fulfilling part of the job is to get
04:57 to go and see a lot of theatre. So yeah, and I think it's the one thing that there's always
05:03 more opportunity and obviously theatre and sort of arts culture changes a lot over the
05:07 landscape of time as well. So that, you know, you have to sort of stay up to date with that.
05:11 However, I do believe that because we put on one so many performances, we are jam packed
05:17 throughout most years when we're not closing for periods of time to do any paint work.
05:21 But normally, you know, we do really have such a variety of things that there's always,
05:26 you know, there's always your top ends and there's some things that you're looking at
05:28 from what your customers or your audiences really want. But actually, I think that's
05:34 the one thing that I wouldn't necessarily be fighting to change straight away on anything
05:37 here. And we referenced earlier about pantomimes and such. There is so much that you could
05:43 look to change. But actually, most of the things here we get, if not nearly everything,
05:49 is of a really high standard. And it's very different about audiences that way. So yeah,
05:55 we're very fortunate. That's the most important thing. We always say, you know, our roles
05:58 are to get the best product on stage and have the most variety, you know, and accessible
06:04 audiences.
06:05 What a fabulous role to be offering the greatest variety of the best possible shows in such
06:10 a historic venue. That's quite something. It's a good combination.
06:14 It really is. It's the, yeah, it's the, I mean, I think I have the best job in the world,
06:18 but I'm slightly biased. But it really is. It's an extremely interesting industry. And
06:24 it's the one thing we try really hard to make sure that within all of our creative learning
06:27 and our outreach programme, that we do get audiences to experience it from all ages and
06:33 understand as well some of the careers and the opportunities within theatre. Because
06:36 like I say, I'm biased, but I do think it's the most interesting industry in the world.
06:39 So yeah, again, one of the big parts of our agenda, make sure that everyone knows that
06:43 there's a place for it.
06:44 Fantastic. Well, Sophie, really lovely to speak to you. Good luck in the role and look
06:47 forward to seeing how things develop. Thank you for your time.
06:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]