Shining year of creativity made country sit up and take notice

By npowlson nigel powlson npowlson@derbytelegraph.co.uk

THE resurrection of Derby's theatre was always going to mean that it was a good year for arts in the city.

For most of the last two years it seemed a realistic prospect that the Playhouse would be lost and theatregoers would face a bleak future.

But the University of Derby came in to rescue the building and Derby Live took over the staging of productions in a unique partnership that may well set an example for other floundering theatres up and down the country.

Derby Live had already secured Arts Council funding for home-produced theatre and had shown its creativity with a professional production of Much Ado About Nothing. Performed in February at the Guildhall, it starred Heartbeat's Steven Blakeley, a former city youth theatre member.

There was also an entertaining new Youth Theatre show, also at the Guildhall, and the revived Community Theatre went outdoors on to the new (and welcome) performance space at Cathedral Green.

But without the Playhouse, the future for all theatre seemed insecure. So it was with a collective sigh of relief that the deal was struck and the Playhouse was reopened in October. In the middle of the celebration, nobody minded too much that the new name, Derby Theatre, lacked imagination.

It was also good to see that it was the amateurs, so long denied the main stage in the city, who were chosen to reopen it with Derby Gilbert and Sullivan Company showing their stature with a fine staging of The Gondoliers on opening night.

Derby Live could now plan a full season of homegrown shows for the first time and set out its stall with a brave first show at Derby Theatre.

The Pros, The Cons and a Screw was a prison-set drama with music scripted by Fritchley social worker Tim Elgood and with a star cast led by TV Bad Girl Nicole Faraday.

Those that came rightly applauded an enjoyable show; the disappointment was that houses need to be bigger, proving perhaps that, especially in a recession, it's going to take time to rebuild lost audiences.

But theatre fans could no longer complain that they had to go to Nottingham to get their fix, with Conor McPherson's Shining City at the Guildhall, a fairytale Christmas with the Snow Queen at Derby Theatre and the best panto yet, Cinderella, capping off the year at the Assembly Rooms.

Best of all, though, was a Derby Live co-production with New Perspectives of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. Premiered in Derby before heading off into community venues across the East Midlands, this three-hander was the most complete and compelling night's theatre seen in Derby this year.

So theatre for once took the spotlight because of what was on the stage and not what was going on off it but there was plenty more in the arts to admire in 2009 – not least at Quad.

The arts centre opened in September 2008 to a great fanfare but proved in 2009 that it is going to have a continuing and lasting benefit on the Derby arts scene.

As well as showing films from all corners of the world, Quad's visual arts programme was diverse and stimulating.

We had Subism doodle artists Deus and Julie West scrawling on the walls in January; Daphne Wright's Prayer Project giving us an insight into faith; Chinese artists producing work in the city; and the art of illusion brought into focus in the Magic Show exhibition.

Early in the year, John Hurt became Quad's patron and returned to help the arts centre celebrate its first anniversary.

But if there was one thing that really put Quad and Derby on the international map in 2009 it was the Format Photography Festival. With 120 artists in 20 venues over four weeks, and featuring big hitters such as Wim Wenders and David Lynch, it was a festival that made people take note of Derby.

Meanwhile, the East Midlands screen agency EM Media continued to get film investment into the county and to win awards for the movies it helped finance.

The best of the bunch was Summer, written by Matlock's Hugh Ellis, filmed in Derbyshire and starring Robert Carlyle. The most popular film with Derbyshire connections, however, was the Brian Clough biopic The Damned United.

In the can for next year are Nick Whitfield's Skeletons, starring Jeremy Isaacs and filmed in Matlock Bath; the big budget Wolfman which disguised Chatsworth House as a ruin; and the next Mike Leigh film shot recently in Derby.

And watch out for Derby actor Jack O'Connell who, after TV's Skins and the Michael Caine film Harry Brown, will certainly be one to watch in 2010.

Cinema coup of the year, though, goes to the Belper Ritz. The one-screen cinema not only staged a French film festival that brought Gallic talent to Derbyshire and held its own awards night but brought Honor Blackman back to the county 40 years after making The Virgin and the Gypsy here for a special screening.

She was escorted by the film's director Christopher Miles, who filmed a Q&A at the Ritz for a special feature for the film's Blu-ray release.

On the music front it was congratulations to Derby band LostAlone who secured a deal with major players Warner Brothers – watch out for their second album in 2010.

Promoter Alan Woolley celebrated 15 years of gigs at the Flowerpot and continues to foster an appreciation of blues artists in the city.

And the James Warner Prophecies produced the incredibly catchy single Sing in February.

Mick Peat continued to bring the best folk music to Derby and his innovative indoor festival at the Assembly Rooms deserves special mention, as does the award-winning Bearded Theory Festival in Hulland Ward and Off The Tracks, which celebrated 21 years at Donington Park Farmhouse.

The biggest festival, however, remains Download, which beat lots of competition to attract massive crowds at the height of the summer.

Buxton Festival continued to put Derbyshire on the map with a fine operatic and literary programme.

Ashbourne Festival moved up a gear and brought Damned United author David Peace to Derbyshire to face his critics. And Wirksworth Festival with its art and architecture trail still sets an example that is copied far and wide.

Derby, of course, now has Feste which in 2009 was linked to the annual Darley Park concert with Sinfonia Viva.

Over three days, Feste was another outdoor spectacular that had plenty to be excited about it.

In just three years it has already become an important part of the city arts calendar and hopefully a platform for bigger things.

More plaudits this year go to comedy compere and promoter Spiky Mike who is attracting even bigger comedy names by building on success at the Blessington Carriage and moving up to the larger-capacity Venue for some nights.

And, as well as the expected fantastic dance programme and wide range of classes we have come to expect from Deda, praise too for the Chapel Street venue's resident theatre company Maison Foo. Kathryn Lowe and Bethany Sheldon are two former Derby youth theatre members who bravely formed their own company and thanks to their Deda base have produced their first major theatrical work at the venue and have hopefully set themselves up for the future.

It's a partnership deal that shows that when Derby works together it can foster and bring on its own talent.

Which also why it was good to see Wasteland – written by Derby's Laura Lomas – performed by New Perspectives in April – and budding film-makers being encouraged by the Quad Film Shorts Commission.

Collaboration between Derby's arts organisation was a key factor in the city's art successes in 2009 demonstrated by Feste but also things like Shakes in the City – a Derby-wide celebration of the Bard of Avon.

That festival included the 1623 Theatre Company who continued to be innovative and entertaining in 2009.

Among their brainwaves in the last 12 months was Emergency Shakespeare, bringing medical first aid to the victim's of the Bard's tragedies.

The coup of the year, however, could easily have been controversial rock star Pete Doherty on the stage in Derby, a rare chance to see a performer who had recently played Nottingham Arena with his band Babyshambles in an intimate venue.

Typically, he was arrested on the day he was due to drive to Derby and, sadder still, the venue that booked him, The Rockhouse, didn't last long enough to reschedule the gig.

Opened at the end of 2008 The Rockhouse brought a string of great bands – including Noah and the Whale – to the city but became a victim of the economic crunch that seemed to bite into the pockets of the young more than most.

The Rockhouse had built a fine reputation in a short time and will be badly missed.

But it was too good a year to end on a sour note, so let's say farewell to the last 365 days by celebrating Derbyshire-born author Hilary Mantel, who won the Booker Prize for her historical novel Wolf Hall. A deserved success.