New theatre should be a ‘house of story-telling’
5th April 2008


One of the things that makes us human is the desire to hear and tell stories. From the raconteur in the local pub to Hollywood movie moguls, story telling takes and holds our attention. “Tell me a story” was one of the first complete sentences my children learned to say. And, like all parents, we told them stories: about our childhood, about our family, about heroes and villains, about adventures real and imagined.

Stories populate the imagination. They help us make sense of our world. They teach language and the codes of behaviour of our community. They provide comfort in defeat and give us words to celebrate victories.

In our lifetime technology has allowed story telling to flourish in ways we could never have imagined. Television, movies, music and internet expand the story teller’s art in glorious, digital techno-wizardry. Story telling has become industrialised, with vast fortunes earned and spent to fuel this most simple and fundamental human need.

On Thursday evening I had the pleasure of being entertained by story tellers at Ashburton College’s Festival of the Spoken Word. For 15 years the Festival has showcased the talented, the eager and the just plain hopeful among our young poets and performers. Sly, shy or swashbuckling they step into the lights to make us laugh or cry, to make us sit up and take notice, to make us think.

I have attended the Festival of the Spoken Word many times in recent years. I have observed young performers grow from timid 13 year olds to highly accomplished and, occasionally, brilliant actors and orators. I am always entertained and often awed by the apparent ease with which they tackle the most daring subjects, from Shakespeare to The Flight of the Conchords.

As Ashburton’s new theatre nears completion it is exciting to think we may finally have a venue to match the talent in our district. Shakespeare told us “all the world’s a stage” but these days actors and singers can no longer expect to attract audiences to street corners or draughty church halls. Audiences expect to sit comfortably in a theatre that has a few bells and whistles.

But bells and whistles come at a price and I notice that sometime in the past few months the new theatre has become the Ashburton Trust Events Centre. I am sure the new name reflects the Trust’s financial commitment to the project, both in funding the construction of the building and supporting its future operations. I believe the Trust will be a major user of the facility.

All this is good. The Trust does an excellent job in Ashburton. It is probably the only organisation in the district with the management expertise and financial muscle to make the theatre commercially viable.

My concern, which is shared by others, is that the move from a theatre to an ‘events centre’ will place the new facility beyond the reach of many local performers. Will the venue’s programme be filled with ‘events’ (conferences, trade shows and promotions) to the exclusion of theatre?

Already some local groups have become concerned that even if they can find a slot in the centre’s timetable they may not be able to afford the charges. A subsidised rate for local groups has been discussed but, as far as I am aware, no assurances have been made that the centre will be affordable to local groups.

In my view the new theatre should remain, first and foremost, a theatre – a house of storytelling. Yes, we have many ways of feeding our human desire for stories, but books, movies, DVDs and the internet fall short on two counts: they generally tell other people’s stories and they are essentially private.

Nothing matches live theatre as a shared experience of story-telling and as an opportunity for our stories to be performed by our people. I hope the Ashburton Trust Events Centre will become a place that excites us, that we become fond of for the store of memories it builds over the years. I hope we can balance commerce with community.