By PHYLLIS STEPHEN
A CROWD FUNDER to open the doors at
former Portobello Town Hall has reached just
over the halfway point. The charity responsible
for running the hall, Portobello Central, says it
needs to raise £25,000 to start running events
and allowing the public in. The trustees are on
the point of taking on a 25-year lease of the
newly renovated building from the council, and
once the town hall is open for bookings the
trustees know it will wash its face financially.
They just need some start up money to get
going. You can help by heading to the Portobello
Central crowd funder page.
Their mission to Save Porty Town Hall began
exactly as that, against the backdrop of rumours
of Weatherspoons or their like moving in to
convert the building owned by the council to a
pub. Since then with a lot of water under the
bridge, £350,000 of renovations have been
carried out to the building to make it wind and
watertight. Secretary Geoff Pearson showed us
round the outside of the building to admire the
“beautiful new render” and this is where he
imagines markets being held outdoors, but first
the charity has to start making some money
from letting the space out for weddings, sales,
and parties.
Chair Jennifer Elliot said: “I hope we are close
to the end of the beginning. We have, for the last
couple of years, been working without being able
to get into the Town Hall. It’s been closed and
the gates locked with scaffolding up.
“We want to open it as a community space,
much like it was - but maybe run more easily for
people to get in. There was a little bit of feedback
that it had been tricky to book in the past. The
building had fallen down the council’s priorities,whereas for Portobello Central it is the only
business we have. It is the only thing we do and
we want it to run as a community space night
an d d ay.
“We see it being used for music and weddings,
and a bit more of an events and weekends
business, but there is a great space for things like
bike classes - maybe the kind of exercise classes
that are noisier or attract bigger numbers.”
http://www.portobellocentral.org99
Opening the doors
Halfway point reached for raising cash to reopen old town hall
By OLIVIA THOMASA TEAM OF MORE than 100 people will
stage a large-scale traditional Passion Play
with the backdrop of Edinburgh Castle at
2pm on Saturday 8 April in Princes Street
Gardens West.
This year, for the first time in six years,
the play will be a large-scale Passion Play
in traditional costume, and includes
actors, costume-makers, stewards and
technicians, making the Edinburgh Easter
Play by Cutting Edge Theatre one of the
largest community theatre productions
in Scotland.
Director Suzanne Lofthus said:
“Increasingly people don’t really know the
story. This year, we are producing a
large-scale traditional Passion Play
because we wanted to go back and tell
the story with a really clear narrative.
“We’re not there to preach or say
one way is better than another, but this
is one of the greatest stories in the world,
and it has relevance in whatever time
we’re living in.
“Creating a traditional Passion Play is a
major undertaking, with a big cast and
lots of costumes and props, but it’s also a
real spectacle - it’s something people
won’t forget.”
Lofthus adds there is a twist in the tale:
the traditionally male narrator’s role is
being taken by Mary Magdalene. She said:
“The narrator in a Passion Play is usually
male, but I wanted to underline the fact
that Jesus had lots of women followers
too. We are seeing the story through her
eyes, seeing how it affected her life.”
This year’s production is the most
inclusive to date with integrated BSL
interpretation and audio description.Passion Play
in the gardens
Geoff PearsonColin Rennie as JesusJennifer Elliot