Guildhall closure must be fully explained YOUR VIEWS
THE article on January 12 (“Show postponed after Guildhall Theatre closes for rest of month”,) has sadly seen one of Derbyshire’s and UK’s bands Floyd in the Flesh having to postpone their show until July 27.
The band have performed UK wide, and their home county, with a following of many thousands. Saturday was to be their first performance in Derby.
Not one seat was unsold. The impact was made worse as people were only notified by the box office 24 hours beforehand.
I’m a Derby local so I’m one of the luckier ones. It gave me flashbacks to March 15, 2014, when I received a call from Derby box office cancelling a show we had bought tickets for the following night due to the fire at the Assembly Rooms car park, and was offered a refund.
Fair enough, ticket holders then didn’t have problems accepting the ‘unforeseen circumstances’ and short-notice cancellation. But our tickets for a show at the same ‘fire damaged’ venue the following weekend was put on hold.
I can easily understand the mistrust of theatre-goers towards the city council, and the Derby Telegraph has rightly highlighted this many times. So here we go again with the “Theatre closure phantom” striking spitting distance from the Assembly Rooms.
No one would dismiss safety reasons but it begs the question of when, and exactly what led from “safe-seating status” only days before, to “unforeseen issues” regarding maintenance and “sudden shock closure”? It appears the Guildhall Theatre ran a children’s production until December 30, only 10 days prior to this cancellation.
I’m curious to know if any significant maintenance issues only revealed themselves shortly after “safely” sitting in the venue in December for The Dinosaur that Came for Christmas, and 10 days hence? What occurred to the maintenance level that went from “safe” being applied on December 30, to a shock decision to close the theatre 10 days later?
I can only deduce that the building was “safe” from December 7-30 and only 10 days later something “unforeseen” possibly of magnitude happened that led to the shock closure. If so, then what exactly, because the scaffolding far from being “unseen” is very visible?
On May 18 we will be attending the Matlock Bath Pavilion to see Derbyshire’s Floyd in the Flesh. The venue boasts “We’re a mess, but we’re open”. And even though there are trees and foliage protruding through it’s historic walls, in the immortal words of Freddie Mercury, the show must (and will) go on.
Karen Walsh, Osmaston Road, Derby