The idyllic Watermill Theatre opened in 1967, then the only regular professional theatre within twenty-five miles of Newbury. Seating only 180 in a Georgian theatre layout, it ran a summer repertory season from May to September, producing six plays with a largely resident acting company. Begun by artistic director David Gollins, who converted by hand the early-nineteenth century papermill in the hamlet of Bagnor on the River Lambourn, actors and staff lived at the adjacent Mill House and cottages. A 90-seat restaurant and bar, production workshop, beautiful gardens, water gushing through the mill race at the back of the pit, doves on the lawns (and in the dressing rooms!) made the stunning estate a miniature Glyndebourne.
Box office receipts and catering profits covered 85 per cent of costs, whereas most regional theatre companies at this time recovered only 50 per cent through earned income - with many more seats. This was one of the first theatres to receive corporate sponsorship, with small but significant sums from companies such as Southern Television and the John Lewis Partnership.
Paul Iles was the first general manager of Watermill Theatre Limited, for four years from 1973, when audiences rose from 56 to 85 per cent capacity and the company staged its first Christmas shows, with Polka Theatre. "Thank you to David and his mother Judy Gollins, who owned the Watermill, for giving a great opportunity to a 21 year old!"
Plays by Henrik Ibsen, Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Alan Ayckbourn, Joe Orton, Alan Bennett, D.H. Lawrence and Moliere, plus an annual Music Hall and Melodrama, new plays and recent farces from London's West End made for a respectable, varied programme. A holiday camp atmosphere for serious work and good country living! Actors and directors included Juliet Aykroyd, Audrey Leybourne, Kim Begley, Patrick Carter, Gareth Forwood, Tom Adams, Pam Ferris, Doreen Mantle, Jeremy Young, Ian Lindsay, David Gilmore (artistic director from 1976), John McKelvey, Marika Mann, Christina Greatrex, Gareth Armstrong, Peter Pontzen (musical director), Hans Meyer, Lois Baxter, Jane Seymour, Annie Irving and Paul Alexander. Contracts: £30 per week plus bedroom, meals, croquet and a plunge in the River Lambourn. For this 'four-weekly rep', there were only ten theatre and production staff, including resident designer David Gunning. Could a resident theatre be run with this small team today? No Arts Council grant, £3,000 from Southern Arts Association, and, from 1975 after much lobbying, £750 from Newbury District Council. For more on the early days of the Watermill, see here.
The Watermill Theatre thrives today as one of the top producers of small musicals, new drama and classics, often transferring productions to London and New York. In 2008, after the successful owner-management of Jill Fraser MBE (1946-2006) and James Sargant from 1981, a public appeal for £3 million led to the building being purchased by the non-profit charitable company. The present artistic & executive director is Hedda Beeby. See the current programme here.
"Walking into Newbury from the village of Bagnor, I often passed a derelict theatre. In the years when the Watermill operated as a mill for making fine notepaper, Newbury's previous theatre thrived in Pelican Lane in Speenhamland. The interior of this Georgian playhouse, built 1802, would have been very similar to the gallery, pit and boxes inside the Watermill Theatre. The Theatre was one of Thornton-Barnett Theatre Company circuit houses (until 1833) - which comprised other theatres at Andover, Henley, Reading, Farnham, Arundel, Ryde, Windsor, Arlesford and Guildford. This plate is from Winston's Theatric Tourist, 1805. I watched the demolition of the Theatre in 1975; the occasion coincided with an exhibition of eighteenth and nineteenth-century theatrical art that Ken Bonfield, stage manager at Oxford Playhouse, curated for the Watermill's foyers. The next theatre in Newbury town centre was to be the converted Corn Exchange, from 1993."
I am grateful for tutelage by the Watermill's auditor, Robert Breckman of Breckman & Company, top showbusiness accountants.
