Inverness theatre makes changes to respond to cost of living crisis

Eden Court have now announced a range of measures to support the sustainability of the business in the long-term. The business, like many others, faces enormous financial challenges, with the theatre seeing significantly increased operating costs and lower ticket sales revenues.

With staff costs at the Inverness theatre accounting for approximately 50% of expenditure, a staff consultation and voluntary redundancy process has now concluded. Around 10% of staff from the 143 strong workforce will be lost.

Moves to ensure the future health of Eden Court will also include a reduction in building opening hours by 20% from the 9th of January, opening an hour later Wednesday to Sunday (at 11am) and at 4pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. These proposed hours will enable the venue to stay open as a community space for seven days a week.

The daytime café will continue, but in a new development, the theatre will be working with food and drink partners to sustain this offering for visitors.

Eden Court has registered with the 'Warm Welcome' campaign - so anyone can use it as a warm space to study, read a book, let your mind wander, get warm, or just be around others.

Rebecca Holt, Chief Executive, Eden Court, said: “Eden Court, along with many others in the UK theatre sector, is facing significant financial challenges.

“In order to protect Eden Court to best serve artists, audiences and our community into the future and to ensure its financial stability, we have carried out a detailed financial modelling process looking at every area of the organisation, which regrettably has included staff roles. The team here at Eden Court is incredibly creative, kind and hard working. Whilst we’ve been able to preserve the majority of jobs, any redundancy is painful and my sincere thanks and respect goes to all the team for their grace and understanding in this difficult time.

“We hope that the initiatives we have announced today will keep our building bustling and allow a little relief for as many as possible this winter.”

In addition, and in recognition of the increasing financial stresses, a number of measures for audiences and communities are also being put in place.

• A new low-income cinema ticket price of £5.50. This is available to those who feel Eden Court’s standard ticket price is unaffordable for them. This is based entirely on trust with no requirement to show proof of any kind and can be purchased online or at the box office, no questions asked.

• A new low-income ticket price of £5.50 for most of the OneTouch Theatre performance, based on the same principles as the low-income cinema ticket. This is limited to an allocated number of tickets per performance.

• A pay-it-forward scheme for the classes programme. Customers purchasing a classes subscription can opt to pay a higher priced subscription and this additional cost is then added to a fund that can be used to subsidise subscriptions for those who cannot access a full price subscription. This scheme has proven to be successful and a number of participants have already benefitted from it.

• Eden Court’s Community Table – a free, allocated meeting space for community groups.