Spotlight on… ABERDEEN ARTS

Photo credit: Nick Wayne

Aberdeen on the Northeast coast of Scotland had a very prosperous second half of the twentieth century, driven by its role servicing the UK North Sea oil and gas industry when it was the oil capital of Europe. It's now working hard to redevelop its offering to the population and visitors with a 25-year city centre redevelopment programme launched in 2015. Known as the Granite City, it's attractive grey buildings in the central Union Street are surrounded by road improvements and areas of redevelopment. We went to see how the cultural provision fitted into the offer to residents and visitors.

Aberdeen Performing Arts

The Aberdeen Performing Arts Charity runs three iconic city centre venues; His Majesty’s Theatre, the Music Hall, and the Lemon Tree. All are on a national and international touring circuit for the performing arts and a vital part of Aberdeen and Scotland’s cultural landscape. Its purpose is to bring joy of arts. creativity and love of performance to all. In the year to March 2025, they hosted audiences of over 425,000 and turned over £14.4 million with a net deficit for the year of £144k but hold reserves of £12.1m, although £10.6m of this is invested in the physical assets and another £0.9m allocated to planned development projects including climate action, and £0.2l of restricted funding leaving just short of £0.5m as a general reserve. The Board seek to increase the General Reserve to £650k with a property maintenance reserve of £1million. The Creative Scotland grant was £383k and Aberdeen City Council £1.1m in the year to March 2025.

His Majesty's Theatre (HMT)

At the centre of this charity is His Majesty's Theatre (HMT), a magnificent Frank Matcham designed theatre that opened on Rosemount Viaduct on 3 December 1906 and therefore is celebrating its 120th anniversary. It overlooks the recently revitalised Union Terrace Gardens, which adds to the grandeur of the approach to the theatre. Built on a sloping site over the river Denburn, you enter through the 2004/5 glass extension which houses the box office and Terrace Restaurant that overlooks the gardens and can pass straight through to the Dress Circle. It’s downstairs to the stalls and upstairs to the Upper Circle and for its very busiest shows, the balcony above - a total seated capacity of over 1400. But the sight lines are good from every level (except the four boxes) with no pillars to obstruct views, a key feature of so many of Matcham’s venues as he incorporated the cantilever balconies. The visit also enables us to see the recently add plaque from the Frank Matcham Society to commemorate the great designer.

Photo credit: Nick Wayne

The original owners, Robert Arthur Theatres Ltd sold the theatre in 1923 to Walter Gilbert. On his death, it was bought in 1932 by Councillor James F Donald, a prominent figure in the cinema and dance hall business. James Donald refurbished the venue and introduced features such as external neon lighting, a cinema projector and a revolving stage. Gilbert's son and the Donald family managed it until 1939 when ownership, programming and production passed to Howard & Wyndham Ltd, of which Peter Donald became a director. This arrangement continued until the late 1960s, when Peter Donald and his family bought the theatre back. Aberdeen City Council bought the theatre in 1975, the Council allocated £3.5 million to ensure the building's survival. After 23 months of closure, the theatre was reopened in 1982 by the now, King Charles III. Curiously, it never renamed itself Her Majesty's during Queen Elizabeth’s seventy-year reign

A key aim of the extension project was to make the building fully accessible to those with disabilities and to that end, the project included the installation of two lifts, provision of accessible toilets & dressing rooms. and creation of space for wheelchairs across the different levels in the auditorium. The project cost £7.9m.

Legally Blonde

We saw the production of Legally Blonde starring Amber Davies as Elle at HMT. In this stripped back touring version, the focus is on a young-looking cast pumping bags of energy into the movement and bashing out the tunes as if at a concert party. It is very lightly staged in a pink glow with the cast pushing furniture on for the indoors scenes and crew pushing model village houses and caravans on for the exteriors. Its bright and breezy and the tunes still leave you humming them as you make your back towards Union Street. It’s a perfect girl’s night out show. They all cheer and whoop when she finally nails the murder case against Brooke by demonstrating that you don’t have a shower after a perm and the Carlos is gay and not European! However, it is Sprout, the cute little dog, playing her pet dog Bruiser, who steals most of her scenes, perfectly trained to sit still (peering offstage at its handler) or jumping up to get treats on stage. It delivers plenty of cute “aah” moments!

As a No 1 receiving house, they get many of the big touring shows and coming up have Operation Mincemeat, Jersey Boys, 12 Angry Men, Silence of the Lambs, Annie, Dirty Dancing, Cats, Heathers , The Hollow, Paranormal, Burlesque and Mrs Doubtfire. Each Christmas, their pantomime features Alan McHugh as Dame and writer, now in his twenty second year, and this year in Goldilocks and the Three Bears. He also writes many of the big Crossroads’ pantomimes around the country.

From 27 July - 7 August, they run their summer workshops, Generate:CreativeLab at HMT at £150 for the week, while their Take Part Programme includes early year sessions, and drama workshops.

Music Hall

Just a short walk to the Music Hall back on Union Street took us to their second venue, a 1200 seat music and event venue, which was originally the city's Assembly Hall. The venue was designed in 1820 by Archibald Simpson and cost £11,500 when it was originally constructed in 1822. It was opened to the public as a concert hall in 1859. On 28 September 1896, the building hosted the first cinema screening in Aberdeen. The building was renovated in the 1980s. It was closed for further extensive renovation in 2016, with a £9 million investment and reopened in December 2018. The Music Hall regularly plays host to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Recently, Midge Ure and Beverley Knight have played there and coming up Francis Rossi and Alison Moyet are booked to perform.

The Lemon Tree

The Aberdeen Performing Arts’ third venue is The Lemon Tree, which began life as St Katherine's Club. Built in the 1930s by the Young Woman's Christian Organisation as an activity centre to keep women off the streets of Aberdeen, it shows cutting-edge drama & dance in the upstairs 150-seat Studio and musicians & comedians in the 500-seat lounge downstairs.

Tivoli Theatre

Music Hall (Photo credit: Nick Wayne)

Back towards the harbour and railway station is the smaller Tivoli Theatre, now operated by Aberdeen Tivoli Theatre Trust having reopened in 2013. It seats 547 over three levels. Though independently run, they cooperate with Aberdeen Performing Arts who handle their box office.

The Theatre opened in 1872 as Her Majesty's Theatre and was built by the Aberdeen Theatre and Opera House Company Ltd, under architects James Matthews and Charles J. Phipps. The auditorium was rebuilt in 1897 by theatre architect Frank Matcham, but then closed temporarily in 1906, following the opening of the larger His Majesty's Theatre. The smaller theatre was extensively reconstructed in 1909, again by Frank Matcham, and re-opened in July 1910 as the Tivoli. The Tivoli was refurbished again in 1938. The theatre became a bingo hall in 1966. The building finally closed for bingo in 1998 and became disused until reopened in 2013

Come From Away

We saw Attic Theatre's production of the wonderful Come From Away. Though an amateur production, they hold open auditions and the cast of thirteen and band of eight presented a first-class show, every bit as enjoyable as original West End production at the Phoenix Theatre. For those of us who remember where we were on 11 September 2001 when the Twin Towers in New York were struck by two planes, there is an instant emotional connection with the residents of Gander and the 7000 passengers on 38 planes that were diverted to land their rather than complete their flights. It's an emotional and uplifting story with some great tunes and very well told as actors double up as residents and passengers. From the opening ‘Welcome to the Rock’ and the introduction by the Gander Mayor, played by Stuart Mearns, through the delightful romantic encounter of Nick and Diane (Darren Jalland and Susan Hughes) to the inspiring story of the pilot Beverley Bass (Amanda Bass) in ‘Me and the Sky’, and the fears of Hannah (Shirley Torrie) awaiting news of her New York fire fighter son, you are swept along in wave of emotions and good tunes. Attic also stage their own annual pantomime, this year Cinderella from 4-23 December.

Aberdeen Comedy Festival

From 19 September - 4 October, the venues host the Aberdeen Comedy Festival which features Russell Howard, Susan Calman and Larry Dean at the Music Hall, Maisie Adams at the Tivoli, and Fred Macauley and Janet Street Porter at the Lemon Tree. Romesh Ranganathan will be there on 25 November and in 202,7 Ed Gamble and Greg Davies will be at the Music Hall.

Aberdeen is going through a period of regeneration that seeks to retain its granite appeal but reflect the changing economic realities of city life. Our visit showed there is a vibrant cultural centre to the place with a high-quality offer in well maintained buildings and it will be fascinating to see how the city that I first visited in the early 1980’s continues to evolve.

Nick Wayne