Trust hand-over plan for Marlowe

Management of the Marlowe Theatre is expected be handed over to a charitable trust by the city council just five years after £25 million was spent redeveloping it.

Council bosses believe it will have a brighter future under the control of leading theatre experts with access to more funding.

At the moment it is running at a £158,000 deficit, subsidised by the city council, but is expected to break even this year.

City council leader Simon Cook says the Marlowe has become a “colossal success story” – estimated to have given the local economy a £150 million boost since reopening in 2011 – but he believes now is the right time to “set it free”.

Speaking on Tuesday, he said: “It is one of the very few remaining municipally-run theatres in the country. Most others are managed by charitable trusts so it is very common and absolutely tried and tested.

“A trust will offer the Marlowe the opportunity to grow and become a major development theatre, attracting grants and investment which we can not.

“It could be said the council is holding the theatre back just at the time it is starting to motor.

“But we will not be giving it away because the council will still own the building and all the jobs would be secured by the trust.”

The trust will also have access to tax benefits because it will be able to claim cultural exemption from VAT on ticket sales, but it will have to pay rent to the council

Cllr Cook said: “The ambition is that the Marlowe will become a production house as well as a venue for performance, which is very exciting and also offer opportunities for drama students from the University of Kent.”

As one of the most successful regional theatres in the country, Cllr Cook expects a “big hitter” in the industry will be interested in chairing the new trust.

The proposal will be recommended to the council’s community committee for approval in principle next Wednesday, but it could take until the end of the year to establish a trust and transfer the management.

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The Marlowe Theatre