Last night the Crucible celebrated 40 years of theatrical escapades, controversy and the inevitable snooker. The evening of celebrations kicked off outside the famous concrete walls, across Tudor Square in Museums Sheffield, Millennium Gallery. The special exhibition here is currently Ian Breakwell’s haunting film ‘The Other Side’ in which several couples in their golden years waltz into an equally golden sunset in a strangely poignant tea dance at Bexhill-on-Sea. Taking this as their inspiration Striking Attitudes dance company had recruited a group of amateur dancers of a certain age to inhabit the gallery and, like statues come to life, begin a dance of their own. The promenade piece, fittingly called Passing Through, then spilled out into the Winter Gardens before filling a mist-swept Tudor Square with dancing couples and illuminated umbrellas in a scene reminiscent of a Jack Vettriano painting. A comparison which could be a compliment or criticism depending on your level of cultural snobbery.
Next up on the main stage was a welcome from Daniel Evans and Dan Bates – in their own words Sheffield’s answer to The Two Ronnies – before they made way for Lives in Art, the inaugural production of Sheffield People’s Theatre, a multi-generational community acting company. Richard Hurford’s script is calculated to make audiences appreciated the great auditorium in which we were sitting by plunging us into a dark, dank world in which there is no Crucible. Indeed there is no art at all, it’s been banned and all that remains is squalor and degradation – a neat explanation of the Tory arts policy one might mischievously say. Presiding over this nihilistic filth is Battersby the cantankerous caretaker played with Yorkshire bluff by Andrew Dunn, the only professional actor to be cast and known to many as Tony from Dinnerladies (incidentally the brainchild of Victoria Wood who premiered her first play on the Crucible stage). Surrounded by a motley collection of spiders, beetles, pigeons and rats, Battersby rails against all things art-farty as Sheffield burns and riots outside the walls of the defunct Crucible. I don’t need to tell you of course that art triumphs in the end in a plot which bears some similarities to the Queen musical We Will Rock You and stars a villain rather like an evil version of Cat in Red Dwarf. Along the way to this happy conclusion we’re treated to a series of flashbacks, the cast sharing their own artistic road to Damascus moments and a supremely silly song called ‘Knickers’. All good fun and gamely executed by the talented local cast.
Next up however was the real class of the evening, a line-up of no less than six Crucible artistic directors, spanning the very first, Colin George, to the present incumbent Daniel Evans. Marshalling this verbose panel was Front Row’s front man Mark Lawson, gleaning from each of them memories of their tenure and thoughts on the Crucible’s unique charm. A delightful Colin George talked of his determination to build a thrust stage despite huge opposition to what has become the building’s crowning glory. His successor Peter James related the coup of bringing the European premiere of Chicago to the city despite having to point out Sheffield on a map to the American producers. Deborah Paige related being given a sealed envelope before her interview which told of the theatre’s financially ruinous position and offered her a get out of the next train back to London if that seemed too daunting. Luckily it didn’t and she helped revive the theatre’s fortunes with a blockbuster run of Brassed Off. Next up was Michael Grandage who had the distinction of filling the Crucible with famous names in classical pieces, apparently luring Kenneth Branagh back to the stage after ten years by saying, ‘Don’t worry you won’t have the whole of London looking at you, it’s only Sheffield.’ Following him was actor-manager Samuel West who left the Crucible prematurely when the board decided not to support his idea of programming a season of ‘wandering theatre’ around the city while the building closed for refurbishment. Finally, the current Artistic Director, another actor, told of his resolution to stay off the stage for the first year and ‘dig in’ before giving a stellar performance in The Pride earlier this year. You can of course see him on the main stage next month in Sondheim’s Company.
All in all the evening was something of a luvvie love-in and yet who could begrudge celebrating a building which has put Sheffield on the cultural map. Happy Birthday to the Big C.
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