Theatre Royal The 20th Century
The 20th Century |
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Unlike the Waddingtons, Percy Hutchison was himself an actor and, while lessee of the York Theatre, spent most of his time on world tours with his various companies or in London managing his theatres. He visited York with occasional productions, and kept the York audience informed of his activities through programme notes. For a while he ran the York Theatre Royal, as the Waddingtons had done, purely as a touring theatre, with an increasing number of visits from ballet companies including, in 1913, Stanislaus Idzikowaski and, in 1927, 1928 and 1931, Lydia Kyasht, 'the Queen of Dance'.46 But Hutchison, together with many provincial theatre managers, was fighting a losing battle against two enemies, the economic depression and the cinema. The talking pictures had two great advantages: they were new, and admission prices were low, as overheads were far less than in.the theatre. Hutchison complained in a programme note that 'the position of the Provincial Theatre is undoubtedly serious, particularly in the smaller towns, and the ever-growing list of Theatres being converted into 'Talkie' Theatres is a serious menace not to be lightly put aside ... I would rather surrender my Lesseeship than be a party to turning York's historic Theatre into what would eventually mean an American Picture Theatre'.47 In 1922, in an attempt to help defray rising costs, he engaged a repertory company to perform in York for several weeks during the summer. From 1925 to 1929 this season grew to become ten weeks long, and was played by the Lena Ashwell Repertory Company. Lena Ashwell had been one of the pioneers of the repertory movement, with her season in 1907 in the Kingsway Theatre in London. Repertory in England was an adaptation of the continental system of performing several plays in repertoire each week; new productions were added to the repertoire throughout the season, and old ones dropped. In England it became the repertory norm for a company to perform one play for a whole week while rehearsing the production for the following week and learning lines for the one after. The first real repertory theatre in Great Britain was started by Miss Horniman in Dublin in 1903. Manchester and Glasgow followed in 1908 and 1909. The system was cheap to run: only one company, without stars, had to be maintained, and it was hoped that the constantly changing programme would attract a regular audience. Hopefully, too, something of the 18th and early 19th century sense of loyalty to a local company would return. In 1930, the first local weekly repertory company appeared in York, the Percy Hutchison Players. They played in York from March to July in 1930, from May to September in 1931 and from February to September in 1932. In an Open Letter printed in the programme for 14 September, 1931, Hutchison claimed that 'our Historical Theatre has been saved from disaster by the Repertory movement', and in 1932 Galsworthy wrote in a letter to Hutchison, printed as a programme note, that 'enterprises like this Repertory Theatre at York, afford the best means of keeping life blood flowing in the body of the British Drama'.48 But before Hutchison could form a permanent repertory company, he went bankrupt, in March 1933.After a brief period of management by S. Weetman Crawshay, with visiting companies, the lease of the York Theatre Royal was taken over in 1934 by a group of small shareholders, who raised a capital of £2,300 in £1 shares, and who formed the York Citizens' Theatre. A weekly repertory company, with E. Martin Browne as producer, opened in February 1935. The York Citizens' Theatre Ltd. issued a statement to the audience in January: On February 4 we are making a fresh start . . . Henceforward we shall not be dependent on Touring Companies, though we shall sometimes engage the best of them. We believe we can give you first rate entertainment, and it rests with you to give us the support which will enable us to carry on. The company promoted the feeling in its audience tnat it was part of the Repertory Movement by publishing programme notes of 'what some of the other Repertory Theatres are doing'. In May 1935, the company was registered as a non-profit making concern, and was therefore exempted from the entertainment tax. At first it lost money but later in 1935 Redvers B. Leech from Coventry was engaged to run the company. This he did with astounding success. He instituted the twice nightly programme, with performances at 6.30 and 8.50, and prices were greatly reduced - a gallery seat cost only 4d. - so as to be competitive with the cinemas. The company was a basic one, with extra actors being engaged for particular productions, and attendances rose almost immediately to 10,000 a week. In 1940 the programme was, mercifully for the company, reduced to once nightly and during the war an increasing number of London companies visited York while the London theatres were closed. The pattern came to be established: the year opened with performances by a visiting company, often a ballet or opera company, and a production by one of the York amateur societies, and the repertory company performed for the rest of the year, with another brief season of visiting companies, often in summer.
On 28 May, 1967, the Theatre Royal closed, was renovated and extended to designs by Patrick Gwynne, and re-opened on 24 December, 1967. The repertory company, with occasional visiting productions, continues. |
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