Best seats in the house are movable feast for audience

SOME of you might have visited our theatre and know it as a traditional venue, but that doesn’t mean that we’re limited to how we use it.

We can take seats out, move them around and create a whole different space. We love using the theatre in a different way. It’s fun to see people’s faces when they walk in and it’s not what they expect. It changes the experience for them and makes it interesting. It keeps it fresh for us too and allows us to be more creative. It’s good having the flexibility to move things around, unlike other theatres that have fixed seating.

We used it to good effect for our show last weekend when we turned the theatre into a rave for a show set in the 90s. And we’re changing it around again for this weekend, when on Friday we’re turning the theatre into a 70s disco for Disco Inferno.

There will be a large dance floor for you to get up and boogie, plus we’ll be selling some good old style 70s drinks like Cinzano and Campari.

So, splash some Brut on and step into your disco shoes for a night of 70s classics. If you want to dress up too, you can really get into the spirit of the era.

But don’t worry, we’ll restore the theatre for Saturday afternoon when our good friends from Talegate Theatre are back with us for Rapunzel.

Talegate have been coming to our theatre for a few years now and always put on a fabulous show.

It’s panto at its finest with lots of audience participation, silly jokes and great songs. It’s almost sold out which really helps to create a buzzing atmosphere. They’re back with us a few times this year which is something we look forward to. In August they’re bringing us a show called The Queen’s Knickers, which is really apt for this Jubilee year and at Hallowe’en they’re bringing us a show called Panto Zone, a silly panto based on the old Twilight Zone programme and of course, they’re back with us at Christmas – this year it’s Jack and the Beanstalk.

Talking of the Jubilee, we are developing a street theatre piece which we can take out to as many street parties as possible over the Jubilee weekend. It’s called 7 decades in 7 minutes.

If you’re holding a street party, let us know and we’ll try to visit you.

But that’s all looking ahead. For now we’re just enjoying the Easter sessions and we’ve got lots planned. Next week we have a Pirate Party, Slime Workshops, Easter Crafts and a wonderful puppet show called The Amazing Thing. So, if the weather doesn’t improve and you’re looking for things to do, there’s always something going on at the Civic.