Mirren, Redgrave and Stewart back Merseyside Shakespearean theatre plan

Published Tuesday 9 October 2007 at 16:30 by Lalayn Baluch

Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave and Patrick Stewart are among the leading performers backing a £38.5 million plan to recreate a Shakespearean theatre on Merseyside.

Clive Owen, former Mersey TV head Phil Redmond, and Liverpool-born actress Alison Steadman have also thrown their weight behind the scheme, signing up as patrons of the Shakespeare North project.

The scheme aims to recreate the Cockpit playhouse in Prescot, which was once home to the UK’s first indoor theatre, where Shakespeare is believed to have worked at some point during his career.

TV and theatre director David Thacker, executive director of Shakespeare North, told The Stage: “The acting profession, and beyond the acting profession, is so committed to Shakespeare that it is impossible to overstate the extent to which actors love and admire and support William Shakespeare.

“But I think the real reason all those people have supported it is for philosophical and political reasons. They support the idea of culture being a way to regenerate an area. They would all be committed to a project that has at its heart an improved quality of life to people of an area that are actually suffering considerable levels of personal deprivation.”

The organisation has made a bid for £25 million from the Big Lottery Fund’s Living Landmark’s programme to secure the future of the project. It is up against 22 other bids from across the country, and will find out next month if it has been successful.

If funding is secured, the theatre development will recreate Inigo Jones’ Cockpit-in-Court built in 1629, and will also house a cinema, dance studio, experimental theatre venue, exhibition space and restaurant.

Thacker hopes that the development will benefit Prescot, particularly the area of Knowsley, which is the third most deprived borough in the country. An influx of visitors would mean new businesses and services, and the creation of an estimated 500 jobs.