The Stage

Mayoral candidate’s producing house plans for Hackney Empire branded ‘naive’

Published Tuesday 20 April 2010 at 16:40 by Natalie Woolman

A candidate running to become the Mayor of Hackney in next month’s local elections has said he would turn Hackney Empire into a producing venue if he was voted in.

Conservative mayoral candidate Andrew Boff said he would give the historic London venue “a new direction by turning it into a producing theatre” and making it a “centre of excellence” for variety theatre. Boff also said he believed the theatre would attract more external funding if it became a producing venue.

The Empire, which was forced to close “for a period of reflection” due to financial problems earlier this year, is currently restructuring.

Boff also said that he would increase the venue’s grant from the council, which currently stands at £100,000, if he was elected, on the condition that it produced its own work. If this was agreed, Boff said he would raise the grant to “substantially over” £100,000.

He said: “What I am not going to be willing to do is commit to funding additionally for the existing plans because the existing plans are no change, and no change has produced a growing deficit. A lot of people who love the Empire are worried about this lack of direction that it has and that’s why I want to give it this new direction, a new lease of life, that would give it something to work towards. At the moment, I don’t perceive that it’s doing that, it’s just treading water.”

Interim chief executive of Hackney Empire, Clarie Middleton, said that she thought the proposals showed “great naivety”, adding that the council grant would have to increase ten-fold in order to sustain the theatre as a producing venue.

Speaking to The Stage, she said: “This man is naive. We all know maintaining our existing subsidy is going to be hard in the current public spending climate. Also, I don’t really understand what he means about being a producing theatre in the sense of a variety theatre.

“But, in order to provide our best for Hackney Empire audiences, we have to have a whole raft of mechanisms for delivering work, not just producing, because producing is the most expensive way of doing it and it can also be the most wasteful if productions don’t find a life beyond the Empire.”

A spokesperson for Hackney Council commented: “Hackney Council has given the Empire more than £800,000 since 2006/07 and we continue to support the Empire because we recognise that it sits at the heart of the borough’s cultural life and is much-loved by residents and theatregoers across London.

“We are working closely with the Empire and the arts council to help the Empire get back to a full programme as soon as possible. We are encouraged by the plans the board has drawn up to improve its business model.”

Hackney Council only provides part of the Hackney Empire’s income. The venue’s grant for 2010/11 from Arts Council England is £395,523. It is unclear whether Hackney Council would be able to force the change Boff is advocating if he was elected.