Last bid to save the Empire

Roland Muldoon is trying to save the Hackney Empire

10 April 2012

The Hackney Empire, as capacious and welcoming as a pub landlady, was due to open in September. Last week its building contractor, Sunley Turriff, went into receivership.

Eighty men walked off the site. Anxious unpaid subcontractors flocked to the theatre's artistic director, Roland Muldoon, some of them in tears. All he could say was: "Don't worry. We're going to see this through."

The autumn schedule was looking mouthwatering. The National Theatre's production of Elmina's Kitchen is booked to play at the Empire, as are Peter Hall's production of As You Like It, Jude Kelly's staging of Mozart's rarely-seen Zaide, a Noddy show for children, a bumper panto and cartloads of comedians. But, because of this 11th-hour setback, the opening may slide into October or beyond. And when theatrical tour dates start to slide, shows can evaporate.

Coping with this catastrophe is Muldoon, titularly chief executive: "We're a collective," he reminds me, "but there's a hierarchy, and I head it." Since 1986, Muldoon, his wife, Claire, and a bunch of long-time friends have hoisted the Empire out of the neglect to which its previous owner, Mecca, had reduced it.

Next door to Hackney Town Hall and opposite hip, rock music venue Ocean, the Empire was never cut out for bingo. It is too spacious, with its tiered balcony and galleries, its elegant boxes and domed auditorium.

Muldoon heard about it when he was touring variety shows, saw it and fell for it. With a bunch of fellow performers, he formed the Hackney Empire Preservation Trust and begged and borrowed money - remortgaging the family home and bearing the financial burden alone for three months.

He got help from the English Theatres Trust and Mecca fixed the leaking dome. He fly-posted the city and attracted London's most vibrant audience - all ages, all races.

Then came the restoration plan.Muldoon learned to wear suits for the fund-raising dinners that Griff Rhys Jones organised, raising £3 million from the likes of Hackney-born Harold Pinter, whose parents took him to the Empire to see Max Miller, from actor Ian McKellen, sculptor Barry Flanagan and electronics boss Alan Sugar, who gave a seven-figure sum.

Muldoon is a non-stop patterdispenser, a Jack-in-the box with the countenance of Coco the Clown. I have known him since the 1960s, when he was doing the stage managers' course at Bristol Old Vic School, at a time when Bristol was a hotbed of talent, including Tom Stoppard, Peter Nicholls, Charles Wood, John Boorman.

After Bristol, he and Claire created Cast (Cartoon Archetypical Slogan Theatre), the spunkiest of alternative troupes.

Muldoon's stock character was Harold D Muggins, an Andy Capp of the Left who made fun of the Tories and satirised the solemnity of sectarian Left-wingers. When the Thatcherite Arts Council cut its grant, he and Claire wound up Cast and started New Variety, a perambulating variety and vaudeville bill.

Almost every household name in the current British comedy world made their debut in New Variety: Harry Enfield, Jo Brand, Benjamin Zephaniah, Julian Clary. When the Muldoons took over the Empire, their comedy chums turned up, and pulled in capacity audiences. Paul Merton says: "Every time I've played there, it's been an absolute joy and has reminded me of why I do what I do."

Billy Bragg played a great gig, then told Muldoon that he would not return until they installed a proper toilet.

They will have that now, as well as dressing-rooms with showers, a lofty fly-tower, an orchestra pit and a new pub next door with rehearsal space and an education room. The pub will be renamed after legendary music-hall comedienne Marie Lloyd.

When the builders went to the wall, the first thing Muldoon did was to secure the site from predators; there is now a Group 4 security team in suits and hard hats. He then set out to find "the best £300-an-hour lawyers".

At a meeting with the Arts Council last Friday, the funders were sympathetic, but Muldoon has to produce a plan to finish the building work. Muldoon reports to the Empire board tonight when a final decision will be made on whether the theatre itself instructs builders to go ahead - his preferred option.

As Griff Rhys Jones says: "There have been a number of knights in shining armour so far; it looks as if we need another one."

But, in the arguments ahead, one thing must not be forgotten. Hackney needs the Empire for local people to get out, let their hair down, have a knees-up, enjoy sopranos and stand-ups, Hamlet and Cinderella, and forget that their borough has been branded "a failure". London needs the Empire, with its audience that ignores boundaries of race and class, its potent brew (and that means the bar at the back of the stalls, too) of quality and accessibility.

"It has always been our intention to create a truly popular theatre," says Muldoon, "one that challenges conventions and expectations, where grand opera and world drama can happily play alongside pantomime, Jamaican farce and stand-up comedy."

We all need the inclusive, embracing Empire. Put on your red nose and spatula shoes, Roland; the opening may be a few weeks late through no fault of yours, but we will all be there when the band begins to play.

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Last bid to save the Empire

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