Why Leeds Playhouse is so important to the city and Yorkshire

This is the one, in truth, that I’ve been waiting for.
Leeds Playhouse underwent a 15m redevelopment last year. (Jonathan Gawthorpe).Leeds Playhouse underwent a 15m redevelopment last year. (Jonathan Gawthorpe).
Leeds Playhouse underwent a 15m redevelopment last year. (Jonathan Gawthorpe).

You’ll have your own, I’m sure. The theatre where you first saw pantomime. The place you first saw ‘grown up’ drama. The place where the magic of theatre pulled you close and held you forever.

Leeds Playhouse was West Yorkshire Playhouse when, aged 15, I stood on the stage of the Quarry and completely messed up my audition for the National Youth Theatre.

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Fortunately, I went on to create many more happy memories at the Leeds theatre which is among our region’s most significant and one that was always the ‘proper’ big theatre when I was growing up in Keighley. It’s where I arrive this week on my theatrical virtual journey.

Artistic director James Brining has been a driving force behind the theatre's recent success. (Tony Johnson).Artistic director James Brining has been a driving force behind the theatre's recent success. (Tony Johnson).
Artistic director James Brining has been a driving force behind the theatre's recent success. (Tony Johnson).
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“The Playhouse is the theatre for everyone in our brilliantly diverse city region. The work on our stages is of equal value and status as the work we do with people through our Creative Engagement and Furnace Programmes, which develops artists at all stages of their development,” he says.

“Everyone is welcome and the wider the reach of audiences and participants, the more exciting the environment in which all of our activities sit. We are a civic theatre which aims to serve the needs and inform and be informed by the conversations and character of the city. It defines our programme, our relationships and the many partnerships we have across a host of sectors. We’re a key creative hub for Leeds.”

Leeds Playhouse was founded in 1970 and came about as the result of a campaign by local people who wanted not just a producing theatre but a theatre which engaged the widest range of citizens possible. When it moved from a temporary site to the current building at Quarry Hill in 1990, it was the largest newly built producing theatre for a generation, following the opening of the National Theatre in the 70s.

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The building’s recent £15m redevelopment had the ambition to make the Playhouse one of the most accessible in the country and won The Stage Newspaper’s Theatre Building of the Year.

When Brining took over, it was a homecoming. “I’m from Leeds and when I was appointed, many people assumed that running my home theatre would be a huge ambition. It was a real honour to be appointed and since returning to live in Leeds I’ve been able to follow Leeds United home and away which has been wonderful, especially under Bielsa,” he says.

“But the prospect of running the Playhouse was about much more than simply coming home. I love this city for the diversity of people. There were less than a handful of theatres I would have moved to after Dundee Rep – the Playhouse’s belief in the value of communities and individuals and the fact that our work plays a key part in the life of both was a deciding factor as well as the range of scales of work we can make here. It feels like this is a great time to be here in the North of England carving out, in partnership with so many others, the way forward for inclusive, contemporary cultural and social activity with the Playhouse at the heart of that mission.”

It’s a theatre that has seen a galaxy of stars tread its boards and has staged some extraordinary productions, from Barber Shop Chronicles, which began its life in Leeds before going to the National Theatre and on to TV screens via the theatre’s recent at home screenings, to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Brining himself has helmed incredible productions like Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd.

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“The thing I love about the Playhouse, the work can be epic and travel the world but can also be ultra-local. There’s very few theatres that can combine that range,” he says.

It is one of the things I also love about the Playhouse, so it’s awful to start to have to face the question of ‘what if?’. Theatres are on the precipice. The longer lockdown goes on, the more uncertain the future looks.

“Something which is being talked about a lot at the moment is the economic value of the theatre. For every £1 invested by the Arts Council and Leeds City Council, the return to the economy is around £5. We employ around 200 local people every year plus nearly 700 freelance workers so we’re a significant employer. Just as important though is our role in helping to unify communities, give people the opportunity to come together and be entertained, uplifted, challenged or moved.

"Our productions, made in Leeds, often tour the world – Playhouse shows in the last couple of years have played across four continents. We provide voices which aren’t given a platform elsewhere to be heard and help society understand and empathise with other points of view, something which is incredibly important in our increasingly fractured society.”

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And on the other side of this, what is Brining’s hope? “I hope that everyone will appreciate the opportunity to gather in one place, which is the essence of our art form. Theatre is the absolute antithesis of social distancing – we are all about socially joining, in one place to witness and share an experience.

"Being denied that opportunity will perhaps make us relish it all the more. Beyond that, the importance of human connection and the need for strong community spirit has been proved through this experience and our work will respond to that, helping celebrate and nourish our human connections and communities.”

Support The Playhouse

The theatre closures forced by the pandemic are perhaps cruellest for Leeds Playhouse, which reopened to the public less than six months ago. Audiences had just started to get used to being back in the building following an almost two-year closure for major refurbishment. The building now has, for the first time, a third space, a studio theatre, which will, when the theatre reopens, be a vital part of the building’s ecology.

To support the Playhouse contact 0113 2137256, email [email protected] or log on to www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk

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