The closure of The Key Theatre by Peterborough City Council
/On Monday 20 Dec members of the Peterborough Culture Forum met to discuss the announcement made at 5pm on Thursday 17 Dec by the leadership of Peterborough City that The Key Theatre was to close on 17 January 2021. The closure of The Theatre, after 45+ years of operation is the consequence of the administration facing a 27 million budget deficit.
If you agree with any of the summary below we urge you to write to your local councillor as a matter of urgency i.e. now, to put your view across on the future of The Key.
You can find the contact details of your local councillor here.
https://democracy.peterborough.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1
The circumstances of this deficit were not the discussion of the Culture Forum and some understanding of how this has come about may be gathered by watching the recording of the emergency council meeting ratifying the decision available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDhhnufur3c
The Forum focused on the value of the Key Theatre to Peterborough, the impact of its closure and the needs that a building like The Key, and the associated activity, addresses for the city. Attendance of the forum discussion was broad and is listed at the end of this article,
The conclusions that the Forum came to were:
1. The permanent closure of The Key Theatre will have irretrievable impact on the reputation of the city and its council, with residents, businesses, and funders.
2. The Key Theatre is more than a building. It is a community asset. It’s function as a cultural asset that supports social mobility, social cohesion and well-being, and levelling-up opportunities across the city’s diverse communities must be safe-guarded.
3. There must also be protections for the social value (see below) and practical assets (mailing list etc) of The Key. Without these protections a new partner, as sole and unimpeded owner, could strip away those values and then dispose of the site commercially, profiteering on decades of financial and social investment by the city.
4. The financial viability of the theatre cannot by judged by its accounts during a pandemic. It’s new direction or management must not have its future profitability restricted by impeding profit-making programming, such as live music, due to a conflict of interests.
5. Once lost, the value of The Key, as established in detail below, cannot be re-established elsewhere, without investment of scale considerably larger than the temporary savings made by its closure. To hand the site on without reference to its social value and the needs it addresses is a poor strategic decision and financially shortsighted.
6. The organisations and people who use and programme The Key, and have created the value listed below, should be involved in the decision-making around The Key’s future. They have the expertise, knowledge and commitment necessary to support the council to ensure that their need to save money has minimal social and community impact, safeguarding the city’s reputation and future prosperity.
These conclusions have been drawn by the Chair of the Peterborough Culture Forum from the discussion and from notes by participants. They are summative in order to encapsulate the value of The Key, the benefits it offers, and its potential as an irreplaceable cultural asset. A recording of the discussion is available for those making decisions about The Key
Peterborough Culture Forum: The closure of Key Theatre by Peterborough City Council
It was agreed that The Key Theatre offers a unique offering to the city. The programme is a blend of live performance of theatre, dance, music and spoken word. It also runs a highly successful, outsourced, Youth Theatre, with 400+ weekly participants and more attending the summer schools. Plus in the past five years has established a very successful cinema programme which is priced to accommodate low-income audiences, especially families, and those on fixed-incomes such as pensioners. It also offers rehearsal and conference space, and a café which is popular for celebrations and cabaret nights as well as casual dining. Audiences are a combination of local residents and regional visitors.
The location of the theatre is also unique, close to the city centre and its amenities, including the night-time economy of restaurants and bars, but also an attractive riverside location which enhances its identity as a “home” for a diverse cross-section of the community. It was particularly identified that The Key offers a space for self-expression and well-being support to young people and for the LGBQT+ community, provisions that is not available elsewhere in the city. In addition, as the only purpose-built theatre space it is also has unrivalled access for people with disabilities, most notably wheelchair users and the D/Deaf or hearing impaired.
The theatre is featured in all four versions of the Embankment Masterplan, recently consulted on by Peterborough City Council, with the results due out in January 2022. The long awaitied new university is due to be open on a neighbouring plot in September 2022. The Key is also referenced as a key asset in the new Cultural Strategy, approved by council leaders in November 2021, i.e. less than a month ago, which includes an ambition to apply for City of Culture status.
The theatre was successful in applying for a grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund, administered by DCMS on behalf of Arts Council England, to sustain the building through the impact of the pandemic. In Autumn 2021, Arts Council England selected Peterborough to be a Priority Place for support because of its potential for growth for it’s cultural offering including as a place for investment. UPDATE - new funds to continue support venues impacted by the pandemic were announced on Tuesday 21 December 2022.
As a cultural asset The Key Theatre was designed, and continues, to be the only venue of a suitable scale for numerous community theatre and dance groups (amateur and youth). The Key has also, pre-pandemic, created cross-subsidy model with a combination of live-screenings, commercial hires, pantomime, popular music and comedy. In addition, it has hosted a wide cross-section of subsidised theatre, dance and spoken word shows, and supported the development of work by local and visiting artist with a well-equipped theatre space. The Key Theatre is unique in the spaces and programmes it offers to the cultural ecology of the city, bridging the gap between community spaces, including schools, and 1000+ seat venues, of which we have four, New Theatre, Cresset, the Cathedral and Kingsgate. It is a space that is an entry point to arts and culture for many in the city, because of their youth or because they are the new to the city. It’s existence feeds the success of the city’s culture.
The brand of “The Key” is respected in the city, in part because of its long heritage and good facilities, but also because of the numerous local people, going back generations, who have good memories of Peterborough because of their experiences at The Key – whether as audience or performers or participants. The amount and tone of comments on social media, and the volume of signatories on the two petitions, evidence the city’s pride in The Key Theatre (see below.)
With all this value, based on facts and experience, the The Key Theatre’s future should be bright - huge potential for development, intrinsic to multiple city plan and a multitude of stakeholders who wish to engage with the venue and it’s programme.
The future of the Key Theatre needs careful, transparent and inclusive consideration, beyond the bricks of the building, or the accounts during a pandemic. Decisions made must consider the wider value of the building and its programme, the people who use it, and the communities it has the proven potential to serve. The discussion here highlights that The Key has so much to offer - which cannot be lost without serious, negative consequences on numerous individuals, organisations, communities, and elected representatives.
Let’s take a wise and creative step forward, giving the city something to be proud of, in the face of adversity.
Kate Hall
Peterborough Culture Forum
& Creative Producer, Jumped Up Theatre
Petitions:
https://democracy.peterborough.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=103&RPID=7736171&HPID=7736171
ATTENDEES
Chair: Kate Hall (Jumped Up Theatre / Co-Chair Cultural Strategy Group / Trustee TDET MAT)
Alison Hawtin (Artist)
Andrew Cooley (Cooley Videohouse)
Andy Sanders (Westwood, Playgoers, SuperDrama and MASK)
Diane Fox (Mask Community Theatre
Emily Steele (Cine-Sister/ Gateway Film Festival)
Gavin Ashley-Cooper (Kindred Drama/ Musician / Performer)
Graham Casey (Councillor / Musician)
Gill Benedikz (PCVS)
Hannah Spence & Andrew Jones (The Chalkboard)
Helen Claire Gould (Fiction Fix Online / local author)
Helena del Pino (Vicar of Bretton and trustee of Jumped Up Theatre)
Ivan Cutting (Artistic Director, Eastern Angles Theatre Company)
Jack Heaton (Arts Council England)
Julie Armstrong (Little Voices)
Keely Mills (Peterborough Presents / Eastern Angles Theatre inc Undercroft / Poet / Syntax)
Lisa and Paul Collings (Kindred Drama /KYT)
Mark Richards (Director of Metal)
Martin Chillcott (Chair of The Cresset, Trustee of Nene park Trust former interim head of Marketing Vivacity)
Matthew Bradbury (CEO Nene Park Trust, Peterborough Presents, Trustee of Metal and Co Chair Culture Strategy Group)
Mr R Joshi (Hindu Community)
Sarah Haythornthwaite (Programme Director, Peterborough Presents CPP)
Sarah Tanburn (Freelance consultant inc support for new Cultural Strategy)
Toby Wood (Peterborough Civic Society)
Zara MacIntosh (Actress)