Temporary Dartford theatre opens after concrete crisis averted
A temporary theatre in Dartford is set to open this weekend after RAAC was found in the original theatre's roof.
Transcript
00:00 Once upon a time it looked like the Dartford Panto wouldn't be going to the ball,
00:03 after rat concrete was found in the Orchard Theatre's roof.
00:06 But thanks to the work of Dartford Council and the Orchard Theatre,
00:09 no fairy godmother was required to get this temporary venue over the line.
00:13 As you can see it's all hustle and bustle behind me here at Orchard West,
00:18 as they prepare for the opening tomorrow.
00:21 It took just six weeks of planning and six weeks of building,
00:24 but Orchard West is everything you'd want from a modern theatre.
00:27 The theatre director says that this was the intention all along.
00:31 Well what we've tried to achieve is we've tried to ensure it's a light for life,
00:36 as much as possible experience.
00:37 When you work in theatre you make anything happen, you have to ensure the show goes on.
00:42 And Orchard West is everything you would expect from a theatre.
00:46 When you walk in it's going to be heated,
00:48 there's an incredible bar that stops with draft beer and hot drinks and cold drinks.
00:54 The auditorium, which is bigger than the Orchard Theatre, is heated, it's chilled in the summer,
00:59 and the lighting sound is the highest level, top spec we could go for.
01:05 But what was required to pull off this fairy tale finish?
01:09 I previously worked in another authority where a temporary venue was used for Panto,
01:13 down in Canterbury, the Marlow Theatre, while it was being rebuilt.
01:17 They used a big top basically for Panto.
01:22 And talking to the leader, Jeremy, at Dartford, I was like,
01:26 "Shall I explore some other ways that we could do this?"
01:30 And working with Trafalgar, who run the theatre here for us,
01:33 we all sort of said, "Yeah, let's have a think, let's see what we can do."
01:37 It's been really hard work, there have been an awful lot of people
01:41 who have put in blood, sweat and tears to make this happen,
01:44 and it's not been an easy ride, but we always knew we'd get there.
01:48 With months of repairs needed to fix the original venue,
01:51 they hope Orchard West will give back to the community that built it during the transition.
01:55 I think one of the assets that we've got with this venue is that
01:59 we've had to adapt our programming and what we can put on the stage,
02:03 because of the technical elements there,
02:04 which is actually going to have a fantastic bonus for the community,
02:07 because we can put more community-based events.
02:10 We do some lovely events throughout the year, we do our Summer Youth Project,
02:14 we do our community performance platform,
02:17 we've got, we work in partnership, we sing together to do a cooperative.
02:21 So the fact that the space can be used to maybe perform on the larger stage
02:26 with a larger audience, it's just great for our participants.
02:29 But before we go, the Orchard West has allowed me to go inside the auditorium
02:34 to find out what all the fuss is about.
02:36 Seats as far as the eye can see.
02:41 I am in the heart of the auditorium here at Orchard West,
02:45 and as you can hear, they are testing the audio for tomorrow night's show.
02:49 A thousand people will be sat where I'm sat right now.
02:53 I think it shows us sometimes these stories do have a happily ever after.
02:57 Oliver Leeds, The Sets, reporting for KMTV.