On a chilly spring evening in what was once a Catholic church in a left-behind County Durham pit village, Ian McKellen admitted he was feeling emotional. 'This is the only company of actors in the United Kingdom and it's in … Horden?' he said. 'I'm feeling very emotional. This fulfils all my romantic dreams I've had ever since I discovered the joys of theatre-going and acting.'
On Saturday, McKellen formally opened a new space for Ensemble 84, a theatre company formed 18 months ago that auditioned for local talent and gave people jobs as actors and performers. He told the Guardian that this is how a professional repertory company should be, calling it 'shameful' that actors can no longer join such a company to learn their trade as he and others once did.
'The National Theatre makes its own sets. It has a wig department, a makeup department, a property department, a set department, a publicity department. They're all on salary. Some of them will be on a pension,' McKellen said. 'The National Theatre doesn't employ actors full-time. They're hired helps. That's not right. Laurence Olivier was a working actor and he ran that company in the same spirit that Henry Irving had run his company.'
He levelled the same criticism at the Royal Shakespeare Company, calling it 'no longer a company.' McKellen noted that actors improve each other when working together over a long period, and the only place in the country using actors under contract for multiple plays over months or years is Horden. 'Where?' he asked.
Many people will be asking the same question about Horden, a village on the east Durham coast near Peterlee that is only in the news for stories about poverty, crime, numbered streets, or cheap property. Ensemble 84 has already staged Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, translated and adapted by Lee Hall, and next up is Hamlet.
The company was founded by theatre director Mark Dornford-May, who 25 years ago co-founded the acclaimed Isango Ensemble in a township near Cape Town, South Africa, following a similar model. Ensemble 84 is only 18 months old, but Dornford-May said, 'We are now probably the biggest employer in Horden since the National Coal Board closed.' He added, 'Isn't that extraordinary? A theatre company replaces the NCB in terms of employment opportunities. It's just phenomenal. There has been so little hope here and we are offering hope. Horden in the media is 'the worst place in County Durham' or it's drugs or it's poverty or whatever, but the heart that this community had during the miners' strike is still there. It's had a couple of palpitations but if you look for it you'll still find it … its heart still beats. We've managed to tap into that, which is magical.'
The company has a core cast of 15 performers, including Willow Pearson, who gave up studying biochemistry at university to join. 'The concept of a theatre company in Horden is fantastic,' she said. 'Why shouldn't there be one?' Wendy Hindmarch worked as a civil servant and was missing her son, who had moved to London to study drama. 'I was just scrolling Facebook and saw the audition notice and thought well, I've got a good job, a good pension, but I'll just go along and see what happens,' she said. 'I didn't really expect to get in and then I did, and yes, it's changed my life. I love this job more than anything. I can't imagine going back to the office.'
On Saturday, McKellen cut the red ribbon at the Our Lady, Star of the Sea Catholic church venue, now called the Playhouse. He entertained an invited audience with anecdotes from his career as one of Britain's finest classical actors, as well as playing Gandalf and Magneto. Off the top of his head, he performed 'All the world's a stage' from As You Like It and watched, gripped, as Ensemble 84 actors sang and performed scenes from the forthcoming production of Shakespeare's First Quarto of Hamlet, an earlier, shorter version of the standard. McKellen said he might be 86, but if he lived in Horden, he too would have auditioned. He might even have got a call-back, joked Dornford-May.
