Eastgate Theatre

Yesterday afternoon I went out with the intention of taking a few photos for the Peebles blog.  It wasn’t a bad afternoon, dry, warm and bright, so I managed to find a few views and caught them with the camera.  By this time I had landed up outside the Eastgate Theatre, once one of the Peebles churches.  It was closed well before I arrived in the town about 23 years ago, and was at that time just being rather under-used as a hall.  Eventually, some years ago,it was decided that it would be feasible to turn the building into an under-one-roof Arts Centre with the theatre being the main part of it.  Fundraising began and with grants from various organisations too,  the building began to be transformed.

To be honest I forget just how long the theatre has been in operation now as time seems to pass so quickly and I’ve lost count, but let’s say it is about 5 or 6 years, and in that time there have been many shows, concerts, plays, lectures, exhibitions…. to cater for all tastes and ages.

Some of my favourite have been musical events. The Incredible String Band played a great gig there.  Beth Nielson Chapman gave an excellent performance with her band one evening.  Several jazz and folk nights have also been very enjoyable, but the one that sticks out in my mind is the performance by the Tuvan Throat singers.  The sound they make comes from the back of the throat and sounds like harmonics.  It is incredible!  I’ve heard it since in films and documentaries about Mongolia, Tuva’s rather large next door neighbour.  So you see we get quite a wide variety of styles of music.

To continue what happened then, as I decided to drop in at the  theatre cafe for a cup of tea and a scone and take a look through the programmes for the next couple of months, right away one concert popped out at me – Monks from Tibet are performing on Wednesday night – tomorrow now - what the programme describes as “a psychedelic whirl of chanting, dancing, drums, cymbals and processions…”   Sounds interesting, so I have booked!

There are several other things coming up too that I am quite interested in so I think the Eastgate might see a fair bit of me this month and next.

Talk again soon.