By Mary Mackie, for the PTC.

 Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? We are! His name is Backlawn and he’s threatening to Huff and Puff and visit all manner of horrors on our beautiful Princess... Look out! He’s behind you!!

              By the time you read this the 2009 season of Beauty and the Beast will be over, but our story does involve a Pantomime, and a Princess (in the shape of Hunstanton’s Theatre) and a Big Bad Wolf, aka the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk (BCKLWN). Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin...

Rumours are rife concerning the future of the Princess Theatre; so we of the Princess Theatre Club thought you might be interested to know what’s happening from our point of view. We know that the Borough Council needs to cut costs. Fair enough — we all know we’re in a recession. The question is, which of the three entertainment venues is going to be hardest hit? BCKLWN manages the Arts Centre and the recently-revamped Corn Exchange, both in Lynn; and the Princess Theatre in Hunstanton. OUR main concern is, naturally, for the Princess, which brings people into Hunstanton from a wide area both for the summer shows and, most importantly, for the pantomime during the winter season, when any seaside town is sadly under-used. Many people benefit from these extra visitors — shops, restaurants and hotels, plus an incalculable knock-on effect.

Now, the Borough Council proposes to curtail the Princess Theatre’s activities. They have issued a list of some five possible alternative plans, ranging from Seasonal Opening Only (i.e. summertime), to selling the venue, to setting up a Leisure Trust (whatever that means). I won’t bore you with the details. Happily, they have categorically denied any plans to CLOSE the place. However, they seem bound and determined to uproot our extremely popular Panto and replant it in the Corn Exchange. This seems to us a most ill-advised plan. The words Goose and Golden Egg spring to mind. The killing of...

After all, not only is the Princess the most financially successful of the three venues (thanks in great measure to the annual Panto): it is also the only proper theatre, with facilities such as a proscenium arch, wings to each side of the stage, various dressing rooms with quick-change spot, capability of flying scenery, etc. Neither the Arts Centre nor the Corn Exchange has all these facilities. Our Acting Chairman has been involved with several productions at the Corn Exchange and in particular he was there when they attempted to install a traditional hired set, an exercise so fraught with problems that no-one since then has tried to repeat it. So they can’t mount a traditional panto, for a dozen technical reasons. QED. What’s more, if they tried it they would need to sell many more seats to fill that huge barn of a place, and many of our usual audience, including Schools and Senior Citizens Parties from far and wide, will probably go elsewhere seeking a ‘real’ panto. Oh, yes, they will!! Anyway, our regular audience may baulk at the huge increase in costs of tickets for the Corn Exchange. So we ask... Why take a reasonably healthy, blooming Christmas Rose and shove it into a pot that’s the wrong shape, much too big, and in an area prone to cold draughts? Not good husbandry.

We are told that no firm decision on the theatre’s future will be made until the spring. Meanwhile we of the Theatre Club will continue to fight to save this valuable amenity which is such a jewel in Hunstanton’s crown. You can help, if you will. Call in at the Box Office and see what’s on offer, while it’s still there. See a show, or a film. Join the Theatre Club and help us fight — collect a Membership form from the Box Office (it’s only £5 per annum), look at our notice board there, visit our website. Or write to the press, to our MP Henry Bellingham, or to Town and Borough Councillors who are involved. Express your opinion in whatever way you can. Please support us, and support the theatre. USE IT OR LOSE IT. Help save our lovely Princess from the dreaded maw of BCKLWN, the big bad wolf.