Worthing’s Connaught Theatre celebrates 110 years as a venue
Worthing’s Connaught Theatre is celebrating 110 years as a venue with a handful of special birthday events this July, including a birthday film quiz and special screenings of classic films.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, three-parts editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now I love anniversaries
00:07and we've got a fabulous anniversary coming up shortly, 110 years for the Connaught Theatre
00:13in Worthing and it's being celebrated with a fabulous looking programme of film which
00:18has been put together by James Tully who is the film manager at the Connaught. Now, 110 years,
00:25that's significant. When you go in there, do you have a sense of history? Do you think about the
00:31past when you enter that building? You do, or at least I do. I love the building and we very much
00:39stick to a lot of the traditions that modern multiplexes or even some independents don't
00:44do anymore. For example, we still have the curtains closing, the adverts and the feature,
00:50so things like that. We like to make sure the musical is very apt and appropriate for the film,
00:55so we like to adopt that still old theatrical experience when you go into the cinema.
01:01And in the days when it was a theatre, goodness, the names that performed there,
01:05quite a collection of people, wasn't there, over the years?
01:08Yeah, we have photos around the back of the theatre with some of the people that have been
01:12here including Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and including, because again, we are a theatre as well
01:18as a cinema, Winston Churchill, Kim's daughter performing a play here. We often as well have,
01:25we have the Royal Opera House broadcast live from the Royal Opera House and actually a lot of those
01:30big Royal Opera House names made their claims, made their first start here as well. So Gerald
01:35Findlay, who for example is a very big name in the opera world now, he had his first performance
01:40here as well. That's fabulous to keep that connection alive, isn't it? And you say it's
01:45a theatre as well. What proportion of the work there is cinema, what proportion is film, is
01:50theatre rather? Yeah, I mean, it's a theatre essentially, a back filled with cinema, but in
01:56reality what that means is that it's a cinema the majority of the time, there's the live touring
02:02programme. We have four different venues, working theatres and museums, so a lot of it up to those
02:06to other shows as well, other venues. So when you are celebrating, when you're celebrating 110th
02:13birthday, how do you, well, how does that make you choose your films? What are you looking for
02:17to celebrate that? Well this one, we often, I'm a big film fan, big film nerd, and I'll often try
02:24and stamp my own kind of taste and basically my favourites. I use it as my own personal playground
02:32to put my favourite films on the big screen and hopefully other people will want to join them,
02:36which for the most part works. But our idea for this season was just to go all out, absolute
02:42classics. Yeah, there's some of the films that people write into us all the time, either on our
02:46social media channel. But mention a few of the films that you've got coming up for this anniversary.
02:50Yeah, so absolute classics, every single one of them. We've got 2001, Space Odyssey, Singing in
02:56the Rain, one of my personal time favourites. Gone with the Wind, you know, absolute classics. So the
03:01films that people are writing into are saying, oh I'd love to see this on the big screen again,
03:05or for the first time. Yeah, we've also got The Matrix, Blade Runner, which is a film that doesn't
03:10get screened very often, with Neil and I, which although from the 80s, maybe not in the same kind
03:17of classic status as something like Singing in the Rain or Gone with the Wind, because of the way it
03:22was released, it doesn't get shown very much anymore. So we were really lucky to get hold of
03:26that one. It's a fantastic film. And what's the situation generally with the cinema? I go every
03:33week to a large chain and often it's appalling, the attendance there, and a few times in the last
03:38couple of months, my wife and I have been the only people sitting in the auditorium early evening.
03:43But how is cinema faring generally, do you think? Yeah, it can go up and down. I mean, I'd like to
03:49say that that doesn't happen here as well, but often, certainly in the summer months, the sun
03:54is the natural enemy of cinemas. Right. People, certainly being in Himworthy on the south coast,
04:00people will love a visit to the beach or to the park, rather than the cinema when the sun comes
04:06out. So which is usually, I mean, traditionally why the summer is stacked with those big, big
04:11movies that are kind of weatherproof that people will want to see regardless of the weather.
04:16So otherwise you're praying for rain, are you? Yeah, I mean, every day it rains is a great day
04:21for the cinema. So you think cinema basically is holding up, because sometimes I sort of wonder
04:28slightly. Yeah, no, you do have to be a bit creative, I think. I mean, here we've only got
04:34two screens, but we often screen upwards of, you know, 15 films, different films a week.
04:39So we're getting into independent works, films that we see at festivals, films by local filmmakers,
04:46or the Screen Arts Programme that I mentioned, where it's like West End recorded musicals,
04:50things like that. So yeah, I think the key is variety. You know, when you go to the multiplexes,
04:56even though they've got 12 screens, sometimes you'll find all you've got is, you know, whatever
05:02the new big film is, Deadpool or something, and it'll be on every 15 minutes, because
05:07in every single one of their screens, we're forced into only having the two screens.
05:14I mean, we just like the variety. There's so much in the world of film to be offering.
05:19Yeah. And do you think, given that great sense of history and that building 110 years old,
05:24there is a customer loyalty that perhaps the multiplexes don't get?
05:27I'd like to think so. I mean, we offer, I think, exceptional customer service. It's really great,
05:33and I know seeing our customers week in, week out, and I talk to everyone personally,
05:37because I'm always in the cinema, so I know a lot of our customers, and I'll always talk to them,
05:41and I know that they love coming to us. They love that big screen experience. Additionally,
05:46a lot of the multiplexes have much smaller auditoriums. So although you're seeing this,
05:52they've got eight or nine screens, but some of them will only seat 20, 30 people,
05:57or something, whereas we've got a big, old-fashioned, you know, 500-screen screen here,
06:02which you don't see. Certainly in a new-build cinema, they probably wouldn't even build a
06:06screen that big. And with those curtains closing, it takes you back. Yeah, exactly. And certainly,
06:11yeah, I mean, it's romantic, I think, with the old, yeah. And it's interesting as well,
06:16because we were looking at some of the programs, being 110 years old, films they played,
06:23you know, films weren't what we know them to be now, 110 years ago. It would have been,
06:28you know, probably packaged news shorts, and, you know, just kind of travelogues, you know,
06:34very short clips, no sound, so live organist throughout, you know, that sort of thing.
06:40So film has definitely, you know, changed over the years.
06:43Fantastic. Well, it sounds a great program you've got for your 110th. You're looking
06:47good on 110. Really love this picture. Thanks a lot. Hope it goes brilliantly.
06:55Cheers, Phil.