Hall For Cornwall: Community, Heritage, Performance

Community, Heritage, Performance

The work of the Hall For Cornwall extends beyond what you see on the stage

Heritage is in the bones of Hall for Cornwall. Situated within one of Truro’s most important civic buildings, City Hall, the theatre has many stories to tell. Memories whisper along the Opeway and its many, varied uses course through the granite, terrazzo and oak which shape its current incarnation as a proud and newly transformed theatre for Cornwall.

From jail cells to cinemas, fashion shows to skating rinks, the hall has hosted most of Cornwall on its stage or within its walls. The team at Hall for Cornwall aims to make this rich history engaging, immersive and interactive for all ages. three-year heritage project running alongside it. Thanks to support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Revealing City Hall peeled back the layers of history and crafted stories, commissions and creative performances to share across Cornwall’s communities.

In tandem, the theatre’s new digital heritage collection has drawn together ephemera, photography and memories from City Hall, as donated by members of the public and researched at archives including Kresen Kernow and the Royal Cornwall Museum. The collection of 800+ items includes posters, prints, maps and costumes, and serves as an overview of the building’s history and the role it has played at the heart of Truro. This history will be showcased on Saturday, March 5 - St Piran’s Day - as a celebration of Hall for Cornwall’s heritage work. The theatre’s youth groups will perform on the stage using the collection as their inspiration, while virtual reality (VR) tours, films, projections and drop-in workshops will be on offer on the day.

“We can’t wait to showcase this work,” says collections and interpretation lead Lucy Innes Williams. “March 5 is the perfect time to shout from the rooftops about all these amazing stories and creative commissions.”

As you wander through the theatre, keep your eyes peeled. Three large panels hug the entrance into the Cornwall Playhouse Auditorium, displaying the titles of 200

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1: Alan Kitching's Performance Timeline. Photo by Sean Hurlock 2: City Hall interior, courtesy of Francis Evans 3: Cornwall Playhouse new interior. Photo by Sean Hurlock 4. Historic poster from the collection of Bert Biscoe 4

past performances. This is the work of renowned typographer and printmaker Alan Kitching, owner of the Wrington Press, wood block printing type which was used to create theatrical posters from the 1940s to ‘60s.

Look out, too, for 10 brass and bronze-effect roundels on the ground floor. These form part of the Storypoints trail, devised by artist Kerry Lemon. Kerry conducted a residency in Truro, working in consultation with City of Lights, Salt Projects, Truro Art Club and Truro Youth Panel to choose moments in the building’s history to be illustrated. Each point is linked via a QR code to its respective story, crafted by postgraduate placement writer Suzanne Inman.

Elsewhere, sound artist Justin Wiggan has worked with the Hall’s volunteers to record their memories as part of his Life Echo sonic journey, while composer Graham Fitkin is creating a new app, Geography, spanning the theatre and the city of Truro via pieces of music that will stitch together as the listener makes their way to a show. In addition, students from Falmouth University’s BA (Hons) Illustration course have been invited to illustrate performances as part of their Reportage studies.

A series of monthly contemporary makers’ workshops will celebrate the materials used in the building. Look down in the Playhouse Bar, and you will see terrazzo flooring left over from the building’s past as a cinema. This has inspired terrazzo planter making workshops with Badger & Birch, and a ceramic tile-making workshop with Starglazers. The Get Creative team aims to give Cornwall’s young people the voice and confidence to participate in the performing arts, from drama to dance and even musical theatre, with workshops in primary and secondary schools - ultimately bringing new stories, animations and productions to life in and out of the theatre.

“Community is at the heart of everything we are striving for,” says deputy creative director Helen Tiplady. “We’re delighted to share our work both on and off our stage, with our Summer Stage Programme being announced later in the spring. We can’t wait to welcome you in.” l

Beauty In Chaos wins top prize for Ezra

Penzance teen Ezra Boulton, has won a top prize in the prestigious RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2021 after being singled out from more than 6,500 entries this year. Ezra, 16, won first prize in the competition’s 16-18 category for Beauty In Chaos, a striking photo of a gull standing motionless amid the crashing sea. “When I took the photo at Land’s End, the sea was really rough,” said Ezra. “Down the coast, there was a massive rock with a hole in the middle of it. Every time a wave entered the cave, it would explode into a cloud of water vapour. To put a cherry on the cake, a herring gull landed right in front of the hole. I slightly underexposed and zoomed my lens out, then all I had to do was wait until the right moment. The high-contrast photo creates a dramatic and chaotic habitat shot. Although the seagull is small in the frame, I like how your eye is drawn to it straight away.” l Netflix and the charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) have donated a new bench to the port of Falmouth to mark the launch of Season 3 of the Ricky Gervais drama AFTER LIFE. The sight of Gervais’s leading character, Tony, grieving for his wife Lisa on a bench at his local churchyard is a recurring theme. The new bench has been installed in Gyllyngdune Gardens, marked with the words ‘Hope is Everything’ and a QR code enabling visitors to access CALM resources including advice and information for those struggling or in crisis. The launch was attended by Kim Gray - Cornwall co-ordinator for Widowed and Young, who also sits on the advisory board for Cornwall Bereavement Network - and Brod Ross, who lost his wife, former MP Candy Atherton, when she died of a stroke in 2017. Both were accompanied (like Tony) by their dogs. Netflix has donated 25 community benches to local councils around the UK. l

Buildings listed in 2021

A striking post-war library in Saltash and a former boys’ grammar school in Falmouth are among 300 sites across the UK which have been protected through listing or scheduling by Historic England in 2021. Both buildings were Grade II listed but very different in design. Saltash Library (pictured) was the second of five new libraries built by Cornwall County Council as part of a post-war national movement to provide more modern services under local authority management (St Austell was listed in 1998). It opened in 1963 and was considered the county’s ‘most modern’ building, bearing a striking resemblance to Le Corbusier’s 1956 Palace of Justice at Chandigarh, India. Dating back to the early 20th century when secondary schools were on the rise, Falmouth Boys’ Grammar School uses local materials including Delabole slate and pink Cornish granite, and met contemporary regulations for school buildings to have good space, light and ventilation for health and wellbeing. l

Farewell to Jethro

The Cornish comedy scene bade farewell to one of its most famous exports on December 14. Born Geoffrey Rowe in St Buryan, Jethro, 72, was one of Cornwall’s most famous exports, and drew heavily on his home turf for material. In memory of his “Train don’t stop Camborne” routine, GWR displayed the message “RIP Jethro” at Camborne station. His funeral took place at Truro Cathedral on January 3, with fellow comedian Jim Davidson among those giving eulogies. On social media, home-grown comedian Edward Rowe, aka Kernow King, said: “I remember seeing him on the Des O’Connor Show as a boy and being absolutely blown away that a Cornishman was famous and on TV.” l