Eastbourne Theatres - "exciting" opportunities under new operator

Trafalgar Entertainment say they are keen for “Eastbourne theatres to carry on doing what Eastbourne Theatres do so brilliantly”, but promise there will be big advantages in terms of the programming now available to them under the new arrangement.

Helen Enright, COO and CEO of Trafalgar Theatres, said: “This is good news for Eastbourne Theatres. It was previously run by a local authority, very ably, but now Eastbourne Theatres are part of a theatre group, part of 21 venues that make up Trafalgar Entertainment Group. Our newest is Bradford Live and we also have Fareham Live. We also operate the Theatre Royal in Sydney which is bit of an outlier but we would like to do more in that territory. In the UK the furthest north is the Glasgow Pavilion which we acquired just over two and a half years ago. There is a whole raft of different arrangements. With Glasgow Pavilion we purchased the freehold. In the case of Eastbourne we are leasing the venues from the local authorities. There are all sorts of arrangements that we have.

“I think for Eastbourne the initial advantage will be in the programming. It already has a good programme and it already has good productions but we will bringing to Eastbourne our own productions, things like Fiddler On The Roof. Sometimes people don't realise that we are producers as well and that we produce a lot of content for the touring market which we are now bringing to Eastbourne. So partly it will be a question of increasing our utilisation of the productions that we have.”

And part of the advantage of being part of a theatre group for Eastbourne will be a sense of being stronger together.

“Eastbourne is great. There are three really good venues there and it’s a really really good location with the tennis and the air show in Eastbourne as well. It is an attractive destination, and we were also drawn to the size and scale. It is about presenting a whole range of different types of content across the venues. The Congress is more than 1,600 seated, the Winter Garden is about 1,500 standing and the Devonshire Park is just under 950 seated. It's great to have those different sizes with the Winter Garden a great place to put on a stand-up gig.”

And again there is strength in numbers: “It is a tough market. Thank goodness for the theatre tax relief which has been extended. It has been a lifeline but it is hard to produce and to tour content. It is risky. The challenge is always about finding enough of the right content and the right quality content but if you are able to produce your own content, it is not the whole answer but it does give you another lever. You can supplement what there is out there with what you are doing yourselves.

“But actually I think theatre generally has bounced back well post Covid. The audience numbers are back to what they were before Covid and by and large audience numbers are growing across the country. However I think that people are booking later and choosing maybe a bit more. We are finding that we are having to work harder to sell tickets. There is also the factor of the cost of living crisis with costs continuing to go up. I think people are more cost conscious than they were. I don't think the market is the same as it was before Covid but I do think theatres generally have come out of Covid pretty well. People certainly didn't completely lose the habit of going to the theatre.”

As for panto: “Trafalgar Entertainment produce our own pantos, mostly in house. Eastbourne for many years has produced its own panto in house, and it really is right up there. They do a fabulous panto which audiences very clearly love. Eastbourne will continue to produce its own panto in house.

“We are not looking to change things. We want to evolve and we want to supplement rather than change. The staff that were there before are the staff that are still there now. Basically we want Eastbourne Theatres to carry on doing what Eastbourne does so brilliantly but also to develop what they do and to develop the programme.”