Birmingham Rep

Introduction

Established in 1913, Birmingham Repertory Theatre (“The Rep”) was the UK’s first purpose-built repertory theatre. Today, it is a producing theatre with a vision to be a civic, national and international hub for artistically ambitious, popular theatre. It serves audiences and communities across Birmingham and the West Midlands, while also taking its productions to the West End and touring nationally and internationally.

The Rep has a long history of developing artists and making new work. Its alumni include actors, directors and playwrights such as Laurence Olivier, Peter Brook and David Edgar, and it has been the home of productions including the original East is East. Today, its programme spans large-scale productions through to contemporary and emerging work.

The Rep’s Centenary Square home houses three auditoria – The House (820 seats), The Studio (300 seats) and The Door (150 seats) – alongside extensive production facilities. Its in-house team builds and paints sets, makes costumes and props, and delivers lighting, sound, video and stage production, allowing the theatre to create productions from scratch.

Alongside its artistic programme, The Rep has a wide-ranging Creative Learning and talent development programme, including Young Rep, its youth theatre for children and young people aged 3 to 25, and the Foundry, which supports emerging artists from Birmingham and the West Midlands.

The Opportunity

The Rep sought a £500,000 loan from Figurative to remake its production of The Snowman and take it back out on tour nationally and internationally.

Adapted from Raymond Briggs’ much-loved book, The Snowman was created at The Rep in 1993, and since 1998 has run every Christmas at Sadler’s Wells’ Peacock Theatre in London. The production has a long-standing audience and a strong track record, but after many years on stage, The Rep saw an opportunity to refresh the production and bring a new creative approach to a much-loved Christmas story.

The Rep’s ambition was to build on the strength of The Snowman brand, which remains widely recognised across generations, while creating a production that could continue to tour nationally and reach new audiences. It brought together an award-winning creative team, including director and choreographer Will Tuckett, to reimagine the production with new flying sequences, video projection and a recreation of the Northern Lights.

The loan replaces what would traditionally have been co-producer investment. By financing the production in this way, The Rep retains a larger share of future profits and the majority of the Theatre Tax Relief associated with the production, in exchange for fixed repayments regardless of how the production performs.

“It was exciting to support Birmingham Rep with the redevelopment of such an iconic production as The Snowman. The loan gave The Rep the opportunity to invest in its own assets and retain more income from the production, while creating more capacity to develop the ambitious artistic and community work that makes the organisation so important to the region. We were also excited to back something quite innovative: investing in a production that traditionally would be financed by a commercial co-producer. We hope this offers a blueprint for other organisations in the sector.” – James Cross, Investment Manager, Figurative.

The Process

This is The Rep’s second loan from Figurative and the process therefore built on an existing relationship and our understanding of how the organisation operates.

Figurative looked at the key measures for both The Snowman and The Rep as a whole, including the production’s touring potential and how it would contribute to the theatre’s wider programme and income. An important part of the assessment was understanding how fixed loan repayments would work within The Rep’s model, particularly given that income from a production can vary from year to year depending on its touring and sales performance.

The structure therefore needed to work for The Rep beyond the initial redevelopment, giving it the capital to create the new production while ensuring the repayment profile was manageable alongside its wider activities.

The Impact

The Rep’s work extends well beyond its stages. Figurative was impressed by the breadth of its Creative Learning programme, which reaches schools, colleges and universities, as well as children, young people and underserved communities across the region. The schools education programme has been a cornerstone of this work for more than 20 years and was also the focus of The Rep’s previous loan application, providing an opportunity to see how it has developed since 2020. Through this work, The Rep brings theatre into schools, enriches the curriculum and gives young people an opportunity to engage with theatre and learn more about the industry behind it.

The redevelopment of The Snowman is another example of how The Rep is using its creative assets to generate income that can support its wider work. By creating a production with the potential to tour year after year, the investment gives The Rep another way to build earned income while continuing to develop the artistic and community work at the heart of the organisation.

“We’re delighted to be working with Figurative again and enormously grateful to them for seeing the potential in The Snowman. Without Figurative’s support, capitalising the show at the level we have would have been beyond us. Their investment has enabled us to assemble a world class creative team to make the show and give it the very best chance of having as long a life as the initial production. After The Snowman has recouped its costs, it will contribute something back to The Rep every year for as long as it continues to run. The benefit of the investment will be felt for years to come.” – Rachael Thomas, Chief Executive, Birmingham Rep.

Find out more about Birmingham Rep on their website.

Photo © Johan Persson. Production design: Anna Fleischle.