Next big decision for new theatre chief Fiona Gibson is whether Edinburgh King's panto goes ahead as planned

IT was a highlight of the year for the six-year-old Fiona Gibson, a trip through to Edinburgh from family home in Glasgow to visit her god-parents and see Stanley Baxter in The King's panto.

Fiona Gibson

Four decades on, Gibson finds herself co-producing that very pantomime in her new role as Chief Executive of Capital Theatres, the charitable trust charged with the management of both Edinburgh's King's and Festival theatres. Few can doubt that it has been a baptism of fire for the new supremo who took up her role just as the the theatre world entered its greatest ever battle for survival as the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown closed venues overnight.

"It was the same at both ends," she explains during a Zoom call from her home in Bolton. "I left my previous post in Liverpool having closed their theatres and put everyone on furlough and came to Capital Theatres, which has three theatres shut down and lots of people on furlough."

Prior to taking up her current role, Gibson was Interim Chief Executive of the Everyman and Playhouse Theatres in Liverpool, and is the former Business Director of Bolton's Octagon Theatre. Born and raised in Glasgow, she took up her new post on 20 April and with lockdown in place, has yet to relocate to the Capital.

Recalling those early visits to the Old Lady of Leven Street, she says, "As a child we came through to the King's panto, that was what you did, even though we were living in Glasgow. Stanley Baxter just made you laugh in the same way that Allan Stewart and the gang do now. Such quick one liners and such spectacle. That's what was and is great about it. Thinking about it, the Edinburgh King's panto was probably my first experience of theatre. It was a huge family treat."

Studying drama and psychology at Glasgow University in the late-70s and early-80s brought her back to the Capital when, on a number of occasions, she took part in the Fringe Festival.

"We put on a few Fringe productions but I had never planned to go into the industry in that way," she reflects. "I loved the amateur stuff, drama was my fun side of study. Psychology was the area I wanted to have my career in - human resources - and I wanted to bring that combination of skills to a career in business. The first production I was ever in at the Fringe was Edward Bond's The Sea, then we did a Tom Stoppard play and then a Greek tragedy. Some I acted in, others I did some producing around."

Despite this, it wasn't until a few years ago that the businesswoman brought her skills to the world of theatre. With experience in the construction sector and contracting, she was invited to become part of a capital project at her local theatre.

"Theatre and music had always been my passion outside work, but it wasn't until I was approached by the Octagon Theatre about a project they were doing that I realised my skills could be transferable and highly relevant to something that is my passion. At Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse I was again using my business skills, although in a different way."

Both roles were fixed term contracts and Gibson expected to continue to play a non-executive role in the theatre industry when her time at Liverpool ended. It was then that the Capital Theatres job came up. "And here we are," she says. "It's a wonderful opportunity to come back to my home country and spend time in a place that was so formative and such a big part of my childhood. We haven't decided which part of Edinburgh we will settle in yet, but we will be moving up."

Three things excited Gibson about taking on the Capital Theatre challenge.

"The first, obviously, was to be leading an organisation that has such a wonderful reputation. Point two was around the ability to make a difference at the King's - the refurbishment of the theatre will make a great difference for producers. Third, the King's is in a interesting area of the city with an eclectic community and to be able to develop the building in a way that we can use it for community engagement and make a difference to where we are located, that's really exciting for me."

With everything on hold at the moment and the refurbishment already delayed by a year due to the ongoing pandemic, many expect theatre-going to have changed beyond recognition when theatres do reopen, the new CEO is candid when she says, "We are at an interesting stage, the design was done, but we will be looking at whether we go for planning permission now so that it's ready as a project that we can move on with.

"But within that, the accessibility we had already built into the plans was about providing an easier flow through the building and to have more space for people to congregate. That, of course, now comes into sharp relief with the global pandemic, there have been many many discussions about if there is such a thing as socially distanced theatre, but we just don't believe there is.

"It doesn't work that way, theatre is about a collective experience where you enjoy it together in close proximity. So that is the challenge, everything we do must be to build the audience's confidence to come back into a large scale venue. We are now in the middle of putting together operational plans about how we will open and make it safe to do so but it's very fluid at the moment."

Any reopening will be driven by government, science, audience confidence and financial viability, she insists. "Even though we might be open, if people aren't willing to come and we can only fill the auditorium with 20 per cent or something, then it's not financially viable. So we have to look at all of those pieces of the jigsaw in deciding when is the right time to open."

Gibson suspects that will mean a 'soft launch' approach with smaller shows and audiences, what that means for the King's annual panto remains to be seen and she admits that two of the reopening scenarios currently being looked at would rule out any panto.

"We are looking at three different date scenarios for reopening; one is around Christmastime, so December, one is opening around March and one is opening around June, which ever one of those we land on is entirely dependant on those earlier factors. So, as it stands at the moment, panto will be the next big discussion. It's not cancelled as of yet and we are in discussions with Qdos, our panto co-producers, about what is the right thing to do - we will make that decision at the end of the summer."

There's little doubt, however, that Gibson would like to see it go ahead if it is safe to do so, and she admits that when she popped along to last year's panto, it transported her back to when she was a child.

"I came to the panto in December and it was a case of 'Wow! This is like going way back in time.' It was super exciting and is still such a great spectacle. I just got lost in the moment, it was so much fun and joy and very emotional for me. I'd never have thought at the age of six that I'll now, hopefully, be working with the team to make sure we bring that every year to the incredible audience that comes to see it."

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