How Rep blaze seen by future legend turned into a ‘blessing’

Brian Cox will never forget turning 17 on June 1 1963. Cox – who will mark his 77th birthday today – was enjoying a birthday lunch of meat and onion bridie and chips at Wilson’s Restaurant on Reform Street when he heard sirens.

He forced his way through onlookers and watched in despair as flames destroyed Dundee Rep, where he had begun his acting career aged 15.

“I was out of there in seconds,” Cox, pictured, recalled. “My first thought was: It can’t be on fire, it’s just been redecorated.

“But that is no defence against fire, apparently. There it was with smoke billowing out, flames licking at the windowsills and a huddle of shellshocked staff on the street forlornly watching it burn.

“We all gathered later in the afternoon at somebody’s house and I remember thinking we were all like lost children.

“Later I attempted to survey the still-smouldering building. I’m not sure why – just to see the damage, I suppose. I never saw it again, the Rep.”

The first Dundee Rep in 1939 was a hall with a stage. The guiding lights behind it were a Robert Thornley, who wanted a permanent home for his touring company in Dundee and Dundee Dramatic Society, who had just acquired premises in a former jute store which held less than 200 people.

The two groups came together, a board of directors was formed and premises for a theatre were obtained from the Ancient Order of Foresters in Nicoll Street, off Ward Road, once home to rowdy suffragette meetings.

Dundee Rep survived the war, the 1950s Suez Crisis and the danger of closing in the early 1960s through public apathy and the slow attrition of recurring debt.

But the tide was turning. The fire happened with attendances showing a decided increase after the redecoration in January 1963 at a cost exceeding £3,000.

The Courier reported: “The blaze which reduced the Rep to an empty shell of twisted metal and charred timber in 30 minutes, began behind the stage and spread to the roof. The alarm was raised by 21-year-old stage director Jacky Harskin.

“She had just returned from lunch when she spotted flames among props. There were five people, including actress Virginia Lloyd, in the theatre. All escaped safely. Miss Lloyd, who had been in her dressing room, was in her under-clothes with a coat on top. All her possessions were lost.

“The theatre cat also escaped safely.

“When the fire machines from Dundee Central and Northern stations raced to Nicoll Street the fire already had a good hold.

“Operations were hampered for a while by parked cars.

“Police had force many of them open to move them.

“A column of smoke and flames spread hundreds of feet into the air.”

The fire, eventually blamed on a discarded cigarette, occurred an hour before the matinee of The Rehearsal.

Tenants in adjoining tenements in Forester Street and Nicoll Street were given a preliminary evacuation warning and many left carrying bundles of possessions.

The roof collapsed at 3.15pm under the intense heat, showering sparks, broken glass, slates and burning embers on the surrounding streets.

But, as old adage says, the show must go on.

The Palace Theatre had already been fixed up by the Rep’s board of directors to stage its next production.

George Geddes, chairman and only original member, said the Palace would provide a temporary measure until a long-term theatre policy could be worked out. He said: “A number of people have described the fire to me as a ‘blessing in disguise’.

“There were many things against Nicoll Street as a site for the

Rep.

“It was tucked away in a side street and there was no car parking.

“We have been thinking in terms of a new theatre in one of the new central redevelopments. But there is the high building costs, which is a big problem.”

The cast mounted two productions in a tent in Camperdown Park in the summer before taking up residence in a disused church in Lochee Road.

The 280-seat Lochee Road Rep stage occupied some of the space which was formerly taken by pews and pulpit.

Despite the ingenuity involved in the conversion, the early 1970s witnessed a downturn in arts subsidies.

Meanwhile, conditions in the hall deteriorated, the roof falling in during one performance.

Although the Rep soldiered on, the quality of the product continued to outstrip the facilities available.

It became increasingly apparent the Rep had to be rehoused.

In 1977, after negotiations involving the new Dundee District Council, the Scottish Arts Council and Tayside Regional Council, a new scheme for a purposebuilt theatre in Tay Square, on land gifted by the university was agreed.

Construction problems, inflation and recession meant there was a distinct danger the building would never be completed.

But the public responded to an appeal and raised £60,000 in six weeks and the new theatre opened in April 1982.

Smoke billowed into the sky, letting all of Dundee

DEVASTATED: A firefighter picks through what had been the Rep bar area, looking for still smouldering embers.

The view towards the balcony from where the stage had been.

see this was a major fire.