Ian McKellen opened a new theatre space for Ensemble 84 in Horden, County Durham, expressing his emotional connection to the project. The theatre company aims to provide local talent with opportunities in acting and performance.
Key points
Ian McKellen opened a new theatre space in Horden, County Durham
The theatre company is called Ensemble 84
Ensemble 84 was formed 18 months ago
McKellen expressed emotional connection to the project
The company aims to provide local talent with acting opportunities
Mentioned in this story
Ensemble 84Ian McKellenCounty Durham
It’s a chilly spring evening in what was once a Catholic church in a left-behind County Durham pit village, and Ian McKellen admits he is feeling emotional.
“This is the only company of actors in the United Kingdom and it’s in … Horden?” he says. “I’m feeling very emotional. This fulfils all my romantic dreams I’ve had ever since I discovered the joys of theatre-going and acting.”
On Saturday, McKellen formally opened a new space for Ensemble 84, a theatre company formed 18 months ago that auditioned for local talent and gave people jobs as actors and performers.
Ian McKellen gesticulates with his hands as he speaks and looks animated. He is sitting in a dark space with a spotlight behind him. He has a grey beard and wears a patterned shirt, brown checked jacket and a green silky scarf with white polka dots.
Ian McKellen said it was ‘shameful’ that actors could no longer join a professional repertory company to learn their trade. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
This is how it should be, McKellen told the Guardian. He said it was “shameful” that the opportunity to join a professional repertory company of actors, for performers to learn their trade as he and others had done, no longer existed.
“The National Theatre makes its own sets,” he said. “It has a wig department. It has a makeup department. It has a property department. It has a set department. It has a publicity department. They’re all on salary. Some of them will be on a pension.
“The National Theatre doesn’t employ actors full-time. They’re hired helps. That’s not right. Laurence Olivier was a working actor and he ran that company in the same spirit that Henry Irving had run his company.”
Q&A
What is Ensemble 84 and where is it located?
Ensemble 84 is a theatre company located in Horden, County Durham, formed 18 months ago to provide local talent with acting opportunities.
Why did Ian McKellen feel emotional during the opening?
Ian McKellen felt emotional as he opened the theatre space, fulfilling his romantic dreams of theatre-going and acting in a unique location.
What did Ian McKellen say about professional repertory companies?
Ian McKellen described it as 'shameful' that actors can no longer join a professional repertory company to learn their craft.
How does Ensemble 84 support local talent?
Ensemble 84 supports local talent by auditioning for actors and performers, providing them with job opportunities in the theatre.
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Actors of quite diverse ages and sizes wearing black sweatshirts and trousers stand barefoot in a circle facing outwards in the centre of the theatre space.
Ensemble 84, a company with a core cast of 15, is preparing to stage its third production. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
The same criticism could be levelled at the Royal Shakespeare Company. “It is no longer a ‘company’,” he said. “Actors make each other better when they work together over a long period. The only place in the country that is using actors under contract to do plays over a number of months, if not years, to do plays is in Horden? Where?”
Many people will be asking the same question. Those who do know Horden will know that the village, on the east Durham coast near Peterlee, is only ever in the news if it is a story about poverty, or crime, or its numbered streets, or how cheap it is to buy a property.
Ian McKellen stands in the centre of the performance space with people in tiered seating to either side and the front. Behind him is scaffolding and a raised platform, and above is an illuminated wooden ceiling, arched like the hull of a boat.
The Playhouse has been created in the former Our Lady, Star of the Sea Catholic church in Horden. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
The company was founded by the theatre director Mark Dornford-May, who 25 years ago, following a similar model, co-founded the internationally acclaimed Isango Ensemble in a township on the edge of Cape Town in South Africa.
Ensemble 84 was still only 18 months old, said Dornford-May, but “we are now probably the biggest employer in Horden since the National Coal Board closed”.
Mark Dornford-May claps with his hands held high to his face as he awaits the cutting of the red ribbon. He has a white beard and wears glasses.
'We are offering hope,’ said Mark Dornford-May, who founded the theatre company. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
“Isn’t that extraordinary? A theatre company replaces the NCB in terms of employment opportunities. It’s just phenomenal,” he said. “There has been so little hope here and we are offering hope. Horden in the media is ‘the worst place in County Durham’ or it’s drugs or it’s poverty or whatever, but the heart that this community had during the miners’ strike is still there.
“It’s had a couple of palpitations but if you look for it you’ll still find it … its heart still beats. We’ve managed to tap into that, which is magical.”
Ian McKellen stands holding scissors to cut the red ribbon as cast members applaud behind him.
Ian McKellen said that if he lived in Horden, he too would have auditioned to join the ensemble. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
The company has a core cast of 15 performers. They include Willow Pearson, who gave up studying biochemistry at university to join the ensemble. “The concept of a theatre company in Horden is fantastic,” she said. “Why shouldn’t there be one?”
Wendy Hindmarch worked as a civil servant and was missing her son, who had flown the nest to study drama in London.
“I was just scrolling Facebook and I saw the audition notice and thought well, I’ve got a good job, a good pension, but I’ll just go along and see what happens,” she said. “I didn’t really expect to get in and then I did, and yes, it’s changed my life. I love this job more than anything. I can’t imagine going back to the office.”
Ian McKellen holds his hands above his head as he speaks. An audience looks on behind him.
Ian McKellen entertained the invited audience with anecdotes from his career. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
On Saturday McKellen cut the red ribbon at the Our Lady, Star of the Sea Catholic church venue, now called the Playhouse. He entertained an invited audience with anecdotes from a career as one of Britain’s finest classical actors, as well as playing Gandalf and Magneto.
Off the top of his head he performed “All the world’s a stage” from As You Like It and watched, gripped, as Ensemble 84 actors sang and performed scenes from the forthcoming production of Shakespeare’s First Quarto of Hamlet, an earlier, shorter version of the standard.
A young man dressed in a black sweatshirt and tracksuit trousers with light brown hair sits with his legs crossed on a green cushion and gestures with his hands as he speaks.
Joseph Mammal performs an extract from Hamlet. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
McKellen said he might be 86, but he if lived in Horden he too would have auditioned. He might even have got a call-back, joked Dornford-May.
A single-storey brick building with a steep roof and skylight in the centre. It has placards advertising the plays and wooden chairs placed by the door.
The Playhouse in Horden, County Durham. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
