Latest news with #SheffieldTheatres
Daily Mirror
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Barry Hearn sets deadline for Crucible decision on World Snooker Championship future
The World Snooker Championship has been held at the Crucible since the 1970s but there is doubt over its long-term future in Sheffield with the Middle East touted as a potential venue Barry Hearn claims he wants to make a decision on where the World Snooker Championship will be held long term by the end of the year. It has been held at the Crucible since 1977 but the contract they have ends in 2027. Plenty of fans and players want to remain at the Sheffield-based venue, but others also want an area that has a greater capacity. Those in the Yorkshire city are pushing to keep it given the money it generates, but another venue with more seats and hospitality would lead to larger prize money. Hearn, the president of Matchroom Sport, has never been shy in admitting money drives the bus and if players want to earn more from their exploits then a change of venue may be required. He told Metro on his timeline: "I think I want to know by the end of this current year, because plans have got to be put in place based on what we decide." Hearn has urged those involved in discussions not to test his resolve as he remains more than willing to take the tournament away from the Crucible, whose main arena only holds 980, unless changes are made. When quizzed on discussions he said: "No, of course not. I haven't heard enough about it. I'm having a meeting with Sheffield Council in early May. I wait to hear what they're saying. The clock is ticking. I don't know if people think I'm bluffing, it would be a bad move if they did." The BBC has extended their contract to show the Triple Crown events until 2032, which suggests it may well remain in the UK until then. Hearn though insists the financial pull of the Middle East is increasing with more and more fans emerging. He said: "The Middle East, it's no secret, is getting more of an appetite for snooker, they're looking like the new China,' he said. 'Their events are big. The ranking event has got the same prize money as the World Championship and they want more. It's a difficult situation, a very difficult situation. You've got to think about your heart. The Crucible has been a magnificent place for me, changed my life, changed snooker players' lives, but is it yesterday?" A joint statement from World Snooker Tour, Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Theatres earlier this month read: "Sheffield loves snooker. Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Theatres and World Snooker Tour have been working together, along with the BBC and partners across the city, to make the 2025 World Championship the best yet. We can't wait to welcome the snooker world back to the iconic Crucible theatre this month. "Sheffield City Council, World Snooker Tour and Sheffield Theatres are longstanding partners. Over the last 12 months we have had constructive conversations, with national Government, and key partners, about the World Snooker Championship beyond 2027. "Due to the sensitive and commercial nature of these ongoing discussions, no announcement on the future of the Championship will be made by Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Theatres or World Snooker Tour during this year's event."
Metro
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Barry Hearn sets deadline for decision on Crucible's World Championship future
Barry Hearn says he wants a decision on the future of the World Snooker Championship to be made before the end of this year. The current contract to keep the event at the Crucible ends in 2027 and there is uncertainty over where the sport's biggest tournament will be held after that. Many fans and players want the World Championship to remain at the Crucible, which has held the event since 1977, but some are pushing for a move to a venue with a much larger capacity than the Sheffield theatre's 980. More seats and better hospitality would lead to more revenue and bigger prize money, so say those pushing for a move, but Sheffield stakeholders are fighting to keep hold of the tournament which is a money-spinner for the city. A joint statement from World Snooker Tour, Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Theatres earlier this month read: 'Sheffield loves snooker. Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Theatres and World Snooker Tour have been working together, along with the BBC and partners across the city, to make the 2025 World Championship the best yet. We can't wait to welcome the snooker world back to the iconic Crucible theatre this month. 'Sheffield City Council, World Snooker Tour and Sheffield Theatres are longstanding partners. Over the last 12 months we have had constructive conversations, with national Government, and key partners, about the World Snooker Championship beyond 2027. 'Due to the sensitive and commercial nature of these ongoing discussions, no announcement on the future of the Championship will be made by Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Theatres or World Snooker Tour during this year's event. 'When we can share more information with the millions of snooker fans around the world, and with the people of Sheffield, we will provide an update.' Hearn, the president of Matchroom Sport, has provided something of an update, telling Metro of when a decision needs to be made: 'I think I want to know by the end of this current year, because plans have got to be put in place based on what we decide.' As confirmed in the statement, talks are ongoing between snooker chiefs and Sheffield decision-makers. Asked if he is happy with those discussions, Hearn said: 'No, of course not. I haven't heard enough about it. I'm having a meeting with Sheffield Council in early May. I wait to hear what they're saying. 'The clock is ticking. I don't know if people think I'm bluffing, it would be a bad move if they did. 'I'm hoping they give me a plan that ticks my boxes and that is the improvement of facilities for players and spectators and the bigger number of seats to cope with the demand. And obviously we run a commercial business, we've got to maximise revenue. 'We've just doubled the prize money in darts. It will only be a matter of time until the snooker boys say, 'what about us?' I'll say, 'while I've only got 900 tickets to sell it's a long old struggle, mate.' 'We've taken the prize money from £3.5m to £20m in snooker, in darts it's just gone past £25m and the two of them are quite competitive.' The huge prize money increase in darts, which has seen the World Championship winner's share grow to £1m, is thanks to a lucrative new deal with broadcaster Sky Sports. Hearn wants Sheffield to bring some kind of offer to the table which would make financial sense, whether that is a new, bigger venue, or possibly a site fee, which he mentions. 'Sky's deal with darts showed me the respect I was looking for and we managed to add £7m-£8m of prize money,' he continued. 'Snooker is in the same position as far as Sheffield is concerned. Show me that you respect what we've built, don't take us for granted. Every relationship whether it's husband and wife or site fee and promoter relies on not taking people for granted. I understand Sheffield want to keep it, I'd like to stay in Sheffield. Show me the money. It's pretty basic.' Where the World Championship would move to if it did leave the Crucible is far from clear, with the BBC extending their contract to show the Triple Crown events until 2032 suggesting it is likely to remain in the UK until then. However, Hearn continues to float the idea of a move to the Middle East, after the big-money Saudi Arabia Masters was added to the calendar this season. 'The Middle East, it's no secret, is getting more of an appetite for snooker, they're looking like the new China,' he said. 'Their events are big. The ranking event has got the same prize money as the World Championship and they want more. 'It's a difficult situation, a very difficult situation. You've got to think about your heart. The Crucible has been a magnificent place for me, changed my life, changed snooker players' lives, but is it yesterday? 'Or is there a plan from some creative member of the council to say, actually we could do this. But remember the deal runs out in 2027. It's not a lot of time. If you're going to build a new building, which is probably the best way, you better start digging up that earth now.' More Trending Hearn has not generally painted a particularly optimistic picture for those who want the tournament to stay in Sheffield, but says that remaining in the Steel City is the preferred position. 'Everybody, to a man, wants to stay in Sheffield,' he said. 'That's a good starting point for Sheffield, but you've got to come to the table as well. 'You can't get complacent and take the relationship as done. That doesn't work and they must understand that. 'But I'm very anxious to hear what they've got to say in early May and we'll go from there in our normal professional manner.' MORE: Zhou Yuelong enjoying life outside snooker again after long wait for Crucible return MORE: Ronnie O'Sullivan leads Ali Carter as both struggle for their best at the Crucible MORE: Zak Surety makes Crucible history in roller coaster defeat to Ding Junhui
BBC News
07-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
No imminent decision to be made on Crucible future
Discussions around the future of the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre are "ongoing and constructive", but a final decision will not be made during this year's tournament. The Crucible, which only holds 980 people, has held snooker's biggest event every year since 1977 but its contract expires in April 2024, former World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn said the event could only stay in Sheffield if the theatre was redeveloped, or if a new arena was built."Over the last 12 months we have had constructive conversations, with national government, and key partners, about the World Snooker Championship beyond 2027," Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Theatres and World Snooker said in a statement. "Due to the sensitive and commercial nature of these ongoing discussions, no announcement on the future of the Championship will be made during this year's event. "When we can share more information with the millions of snooker fans around the world, and with the people of Sheffield, we will provide an update."The 2025 World Championships start on 19 has also previously said that it would be his preference for the tournament to stay in iconic Crucible has become a huge part of the history of the sport, with its cramped setting providing a unique atmosphere - and the venue regarded as the home of until the semi-finals, the World Snooker Championship is played with a two-table set up, meaning space is tight and the fans are close to the players, including Ronnie O'Sullivan and Iran's Hossein Vafaei, have criticised the venue for being too small but 2005 champion Shaun Murphy called it "holy ground" for competitors. China and Saudi Arabia have been suggested as possible alternatives for hosting the tournament.
The Guardian
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in theatre: Otherland; Backstroke
That crucial instruction to writers that they should 'show not tell', is even more evidently useful on the stage than on the page. It might be reworded as 'embody not explain'. After all, so much can be seen not only as it is but also in the process of becoming different. This makes Ann Yee's production of Otherland an extraordinary 3D testimony, a valuable gathering of information and a finally unsatisfactory drama. Chris Bush, author of Standing at the Sky's Edge, one of Sheffield Theatres's biggest musical hits, has, without writing an autobiography, drawn on her experiences as a trans woman to produce a twofold story that examines the particular question of what people think it is to be a woman, and considers what is it to become other than your accustomed self. Harry, christened Henry, marries Jo, an adored college girlfriend, before realising that a real life demands becoming a woman, a discovery that leads to the end of the marriage. Living as Harriet, before transitioning, she is greeted with wounding bewilderment from her mother (couldn't the person she thinks of her son stop distracting people's attention?) and with sniggers and insults – 'What is that? – from strangers. Fizz Sinclair's Harry is tender, graceful and touching. Meanwhile her former wife – Jade Anouka at full sizzle – falls for another woman (a beguiling Amanda Wilkin) and agrees, against all her former wishes, to have a baby. In doing so she becomes for a time a stranger to herself and her new wife. There is plenty of insight in Otherland, including the observation that foetuses are routinely given the dimensions of middle-class food: they may be compared to an olive but never to a turkey twizzler. Yet Bush too heavily underlines her significant points. Halfway through, the play's naturalism is briefly abandoned. Fly Davis's design splits open to reveal a murky pool containing an early mermaid version of Harry, caught in the net of men who classify her as a monster. Meanwhile, Jo, entering the world of maternity care, is reimagined as a robotic baby-machine. Throughout, an onstage chorus is put to just the use it shouldn't be, unless describing something undetectable. It tells the audience what to see: 'Harry's shoulders stoop as she turns in on herself.' Fizz Sinclair does not need the commentary – she is particularly powerful when suggesting suppressed pain and quiet withdrawal, which makes her final happiness the more buoyant. Anna Mackmin's new play, Backstroke, starring Tamsin Greig and Celia Imrie – who are two good reasons to see anything – moves through eddies of wordspin and whirlpools of interest. In tracing the coming and going, guttering and flaring relationship between a middle-aged woman and her dying mother, the play, directed by Mackmin herself, comes in myopically close to each scene. The dialogue is sharp but the action gets jammed. Ab Fab long ago dealt the death blow to the idea that daughters of the late 20th century were going to follow tradition and be more rebellious than their staid mothers. This daughter, Bo, played by Tamsin Greig, is not as censorious as earnest Saffy, but she is furrowed. Well, she must have had a hard time at school: Bo is short for Boudicca. Greig, straight-faced but with windmill hands, is made up just right by designer Lez Brotherston in unyielding denims and a bobbly capacious jumper that her mother deems 'lesbian'. She deploys her singular calm as an actor to appear both intent and distracted – pulled between her own troubled adopted daughter and her ailing mother; tugged by exasperation, affection, admiration and desperation. Seen at first inert in a hospital bed, stilled by a stroke, Imrie springs into full embarrassing life as she relives her days with her daughter: dependent, neglectful, occasionally affectionate. With flowing grey hair (shorthand for drifting wits), a fringed shawl and ankle-length dress, she talks about her 'dillypot' in magnificent, mad and maddening detail, informing her shuddering daughter that 'whenever your daddy went down on me' she had a fantasy about a hare. As she prepares for a few days away she dimples while announcing she is packing only one tiny travelling loom. Lucy Briers puts in a neat cameo as a sour-faced ultra-Christian nurse who dispenses aggression as if it were an act of grace, sweet-talking her patient as she feeds her the cherry yoghurt she hates. She is completely credible. As is the flickering emotion between the two stars – their very lack of consistency is authentic. Though it is clear from the beginning how this is going to end, shifts of feeling and slow disclosure of shared secrets make the evening twist unpredictably. The trouble is that when every small thing becomes an event, propulsion is overwhelmed. Backstroke? More like trying to do laps in a Jacuzzi. Star ratings (out of five)Otherland ★★★Backstroke ★★★ Otherland is at the Almeida theatre, London N1, until 15 March Backstroke is at the Donmar Warehouse, London WC2, until 12 April
The Guardian
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘We were booed. I felt proud': Daniel Evans on his rollercoaster journey to RSC supremo
Daniel Evans, whose sparkling performances in Stephen Sondheim musicals have earned him two Olivier awards and a Tony nomination, has been meaning to get back on stage for some time. Chalk up the delay to little things such as running Sheffield Theatres for seven years, followed by another seven at the Chichester Festival theatre before being appointed co-artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company with Tamara Harvey in 2023. Aside from a spot of emergency understudying on the RSC's queer musical western Cowbois, it has been 14 years since Evans acted on stage. Even during his award-laden early years, he would sometimes get home after a performance and think: 'Is this it?' The 51-year-old sitting in the corner of a London rehearsal room today is singing a different tune. 'I had this need to act again,' Evans says. 'And I can't quite explain it.' He looks lean and taut, his head as smooth and shiny as a Belisha beacon. 'I started losing my hair in my early 20s. I've been shaving it since I was 25.' Wait: he definitely had a healthy mop when he played Peter Pan at the National in 1997 opposite Ian McKellen as Captain Hook. 'A wig,' he confides gently, as though breaking bad news to a delicate child. That star-making turn came after the RSC had poached him during his final year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, whisking him off to New York for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now he is not only co-running the company but returning to acting as the king who insists on ruling alongside his male lover in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II. There are some obvious differences between the RSC of his youth and now. Earlier this month, for instance, he was producing content for TikTok, to support £10 RSC tickets for 14-to-25-year-olds. 'Day one of rehearsals we were filming the trailer,' he says. 'Lots of snogging in the crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields.' Forget TikTok: the last time Edward II was performed at the RSC, Ceefax was still around. (That was 35 years ago, with Simon Russell Beale.) Evans thinks its relative scarcity is attributable partly to what is known as 'Marlowe's mighty line'. The actor explains: 'It has this inexorable rhythm. Marlowe's thoughts are these trains that just keep going. To act that, you've got to be in a different state.' Agitated? 'Athletic.' The question with any revival is always: why now? 'The play feels contemporary,' he reflects. 'However liberal our society may seem, you can encounter homophobia weekly, even daily. We've never had an out prime minister or an out Best Actor Oscar winner.' What about at close quarters? 'It can be in a look, or in how one experiences life backstage. You still hear directors say about an actor, 'Oh no, they're too camp for that part.'' It's one thing for Evans and Harvey to include Edward II as part of their flagship season. But for the RSC's co-artistic director to also take the lead role – and for that to mark Evans's return to the stage after an extended hiatus – places a substantial symbolic weight on the role itself. In 2013, Evans noted that 'the most satisfying time I've had in the theatre is playing a gay part in a brilliant play'. He was referring to Christopher Shinn's Where Do We Live, back in 2002. What is the extra dimension for him in gay roles? 'It goes to the nature of acting itself. Very few people can totally efface themselves when they're acting, so for me it's a form of self-revelation. Choosing this part is about being all of me.' He looks faintly embarrassed. 'Sorry if that sounds strange!' As well as being gay, he and Edward are both leaders. 'I think good leadership is about authenticity.' Another caveat: 'I know that's become a silly buzzword. But you have to ultimately be yourself. I wanted to play a role that allows me to reveal myself. Which sounds indulgent.' Why the apologetic tone? 'I have those doubts because I'm from the valleys in Wales and these are very different values from my upbringing. But those doubts are good because then you're reminding yourself, 'This isn't an ego trip. This is a play with something to say.'' Evans' sensitivity and his childhood love of theatre made him a doubly attractive target for bullies at school. 'People were calling me 'gay' before I knew I was. They spotted something in me that I didn't even see. My response was to run away from it. Then you can run no longer, so you have to face it.' He has been out for his professional life but the prospect of turning 50 nudged him toward Edward II. 'It's like, 'You've got to own this.'' Own it he will. He is going to be standing on stage, naked in some scenes, kissing another man – 'Two men!' he points out – in an avowedly queer play produced by an internationally renowned theatre company of which he is now joint artistic director. How much of that dream scenario represents a 'Screw you' to the bullies? 'Oh my God,' he says, banging a clenched fist against his chest. 'As you said that, I felt like I was being hit by something. I think you're right. I think that's what it is. That wasn't why we programmed the play but it links back to authenticity. It's saying, 'This is a part of who I am.'' There are other parallels. 'Edward is a king who couldn't be himself because of the bullying he experienced. Ironically, he gets in touch with his fury too late. He acts, yet not in a diplomatic way that can be construed as being good for the country. And he has to give up his crown.' Evans' crown is safe for now. He and Harvey, who signed a five-year contract, are about to announce their new season. Before then, Evans will be acting again in a revival that, like his RSC gig, returns him to his theatrical roots. A new 25th anniversary production of Sarah Kane's harrowing 4:48 Psychosis, co-produced with the Royal Court, will reunite him with the other original cast members and their director James Macdonald. The Stratford chunk of the run will include a final performance beginning at 4:48am, after which the cast will have breakfast with the audience. The mood during the original rehearsals of 4:48 Psychosis, which took place in the shadow of Kane's 1999 suicide, was febrile. 'There were days when we had to be sent home,' recalls Evans. 'Either we were laughing too much, which is a coping mechanism, or we were too emotionally tangled.' Evans has long championed Kane's work; his Sheffield tenure even began in confrontational mode with a complete season of her writing. He also got to act alongside her when she replaced an injured cast member in the final three performances of her brutal 1998 play Cleansed (the one with the notorious stage direction: 'The rats carry Carl's feet away'). 'Sarah was on stage next to me. We were literally naked. It was disarming because she wasn't acting: she was being. Therefore, I had to change what I was doing to be more real. She had this rawness. It was as if her skin was translucent.' With most of the run of 4:48 Psychosis sold out, including that dawn performance, the reception will be closer to reverence now, certainly compared with the outraged reviews at the time, which decried Kane's plays as filth. 'We were booed during the curtain call at Cleansed,' says Evans. 'I felt quite proud.' Booing might be perversely gratifying but theatre has become a more hazardous and volatile place since the outbreak of the latest culture wars. Nataki Garrett, artistic director at the Oregon Shakespeare festival, received death threats; hostility greeted the Globe's Shakespeare and Race festival; while the same theatre faced a backlash over its non-binary characterisation of Joan of Arc in I, Joan. Evans is committed to making the RSC a home for bold reimaginings, whether it's Emily Burns's Love's Labour's Lost, which relocated the hi-jinks to a tech bro's island, or Radiohead fusing with Shakespeare in the forthcoming Hamlet Hail to the Thief. But what is his relationship to controversy? 'In some ways, there is no avoiding it,' he says. 'People might disagree with one's vision, I guess. Every now and then, controversy may not be a bad thing as it means people are being asked to think differently. That said, shock can't be the only part. I do want to fuck with Shakespeare – but only to illuminate.' Edward II is at the Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 21 February to 5 April. 4:48 Psychosis is at the Royal Court, London, 12 June to 5 July and at the Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, 10 to 27 July.
