Michael Harrison is the Wallsend born and bred managing director of Qdos pantomimes which has forged highly successful partnerships with Darlington Civic Theatre and Newcastle Theatre Royal. Viv Hardwick asked him for his thoughts about the current volatile state of funding for the Civic where Qdos has a contract to run pantomimes in 2011 and 2012.

you update me on the current state of Darlington Borough Council negotiations with Qdos regarding future pantomimes at the Civic?

Nick Thomas (chairman of Qdos Entertainment plc) handles all that and keeps me updated. Nick, in particular, loves the Civic and Peter Pan is our 25th pantomine there.

To see it go anywhere, be it closed or sold to somebody else would be an enormous heartbreak because we’ve had such a long relationship there. It’s probably one of the longest relationships in history.

I don’t think any other producer has had such a long consecutive relationship with a theatre, in pantomime terms, that Nick has had with Darlington.

What are your own feelings about the theatre’s fate?

There’s no way this theatre should be closed. It should be there for the people of Darlington and the surrounding area because there is clearly an audience for theatre, we’ve clearly proved that this Christmas with a complete record-breaking season.

If there’s a way and it makes sense I know that Qdos will be interested (in taking over the running of the venue).

What makes the Civic so special is the staff, are there anxieties at Qdos that you’ll lose this team of people at some point next year?

Listen, when these things happen and theatres change hands there are people who can leave and come back or not leave at all. Whoever gets the Civic, there has to be a hand-over. I would imagine that is all within the plans of what has to happen.

Do Qdos want to run theatres like the Civic?

Well, we’ve already got theatres at Dartford, High Wycombe and Southend. These are theatres that are not dissimilar to Darlington in terms of the programming.

We also run The Palace at Westcliff and several other venues, so I think Darlington would fit very well within the group of theatres we have, but it does depend on negotiations. But I don’t know of a theatre that has more heart than the Civic has… ‘the legendary Darlington Civic’ is always the tag.

The local authority is talking about pulling the financial plug on the Civic at the end of July. Are you worried about how the theatre will keep operating between September and December when Cinderella is due to open?

We would like it all to be decided by early next year if it has to be done at all.

Do you have any thoughts on why a council should find a theatre so difficult to keep open?

Sometimes, the argument is that hospitals and education and whatever are more important. And I’m sure there is an argument and any of us in need of a heart transplant would rather have that than be able to see a play. But that’s a very blinkered view.

In a time of Government cuts some things have to go. Everybody has to tighten their belts and it’s not the first time its happened and Darlington isn’t the only place. There are other towns and cities around the UK going through exactly the same thing.

If a number of theatres in the North-East are offered to Qdos can it continue to take over and run several?

I think every venue would have to be looked at on an individual basis. I know that certain venues have raised the feeling ‘we’re not going to take them on because it has to be viable at the end of the day’.

Susan Hallam-Wright who stars as Peter Pan at Darlington seems made for the role.

She’s good isn’t she and I’ve told her she’s found her part now for the next however years. She’s like the next Bonnie Langford.

Peter Pan is already £180,000 ahead of last year’s ticket sales. Can you reach the magic £700,000 mark?

Listen, I’d like to think that we could. It’s all about the weather now and how many people are put off by fears that they might not be able to get to the Civic. Weather is a major factor for both Darlington and Newcastle.

You’ve got worries about the future of Darlington.

Are there anything like the same concerns at Newcastle?

No, as far as I’m aware. The Theatre Royal is very different for a start. There are 1,200 seats so that immediately changes the perspective and you can make more money. The bars are bigger so they make more. It’s just a bigger organisation and it’s in an independent trust already. I hope there’s no plan to cut the arts in Newcastle. I’m sure there will be cuts but the Theatre Royal does very well and shows take a lot of money there.

Would you agree with the view that a Geordie audience is a good touchstone for any theatre tour, particularly those with West End potential.

I think you do. I think you can gauge the show you’ve got very, very well and it’s a nice place to open and a nice city to be in. Because of the Royal Shakespeare Company and because of the size and scale of the pantomime the venue is used to opening things. It doesn’t just take shows which arrive on a Monday and leave on a Saturday.