Hackney Empire

 

Hackney Empire

 

VO
It's wonderful, it's traditional, it's actually a bingo hall. At least the Hackney Empire was until Roland Muldoon arrived.

 

IV
We were an alternative theater company touring around Britain and we decided to try to get a venue. Little did we know that we were going to be offered the Hackney Empire.

 

VO
So if the Empire doesnt do bingo anymore, what does it do?

 

IV

We put on shows in London that don't get into the West End, that tour the rest of Britain, that tour the rest of the world but don't necessarily get into the center of London because they need to have shorter runs than the big long runs that the West End needs.

 

VOX
It does show things for kids, adults, it does show musicals, all different varities of stuff for different people, and that's what I like about it, basically. It's different.

 

VO
So how do you raise 17 Million pounds to refurbish a theater?

 

IV

It was a very difficult job but luckily we finally got the money from the Arts council, and then Alan Sugar gave us 1.3 million out of the blue and all of a sudden that changed the thing, and restoration became a possibility.

 

VOX

We've been... maybe two times? Three times. Four. Five times.

 

IV
Happens to be in Hackney and its a great place to be because it's such a multiculural borough that all types of people live here. There are very expensive houses and a lot of social housing. But Hackney perhaps represents that flexible London more than anywhere else. So we're proud to be in Hackney, but really, we're in London. You come here, you sit here, you laugh against your own interests, you get taken this way or that way, you find yourselves involved in performance. It's superior to cinema or television. It's a celebration of being alive to come to the Hackney Empire.