Cinema Coming To Whitstable
“…It will encourage people to come back and see a play here and that is more important than anything.”
Original Article by Scarlet Jones, Whitstable Times – Thursday 12 December 2013
Cinema lovers will be able to get their film fix closer to home in the new year.
The Playhouse in Oxford Street, home of the Lindley Players, is to show films on a new big screen from February.
Chairman of the players Peter Bressington told the Times: “We bought a high-resolution projector so we could show different images during our performances.
“We had been toying for a while with the idea of cinema, which is something which people have been trying to do in town and decided that was what we could do. We have got a screen which is seven metres long and fills up the stage area and we have got a new sound system going in soon.
“And of course we will still have the bar open as we do during live performances.”
He said the group looked into launching a film club but decided against it as the screenings would have to be held regularly and priority needed to be given to live performances at the converted church.
He said: “We need flexibility so we are looking at a programme of films to show throughout the year.
“It won’t be somewhere people can go every week to see a film. There is also the logistics if we are working on a large set, so the films will have to be planned for when we can fit the screen around the sets.”
The first film to show in the 180-seat theatre will be the Agatha Christie mystery Death On The Nile.
Mr Bressington said: “It’s quite a theatrical film so I think it will chime with our audience.”
Other films will include Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Marigold Hotel and Les Misérables.
Mr Bressington said: “We don’t want to get stuck showing a particular genre, we can react to what people ask for and I guess at some times of the year there will be certain films, like at Hallowe’en.
“This is something completely new for us and we certainly don’t want to compete with the likes of Vue and Odeon.
“We are hoping to make money from it but I think the main thing is that it will encourage people to come back and see a play here and that is more important than anything.”
Tickets will be £5 and the box office will be open for bookings next week.
For more details visit call the Box Office: 01227 272042 or visit www.playhousewhitstable.co.uk