We went to the cinema this afternoon, to a matinee showing of Star Wars : The Force Awakens at Harwich's splendid Electric Palace. I'd been enthusing to friends the last time we saw them about how good the Electric Palace was, with its beautifully preserved Baroque architecture from before the Great War and big comfy red seats. A couple of weeks ago they suggested we all go there and see Star Wars.
In truth, we hadn't been to the Electric Palace for a while, but an epic of good versus evil waging war in space ships across the galaxy sounded like the sort of film that would show to advantage on the big screen, instead of waiting until the DVD came out. Harwich is not in the forefront of Star Wars screenings, since the UK release date was a month ago, but it's not often we see a film only four weeks after it's out.
There have been a few changes at the Electric Palace and you can now book tickets online. You can also see the number of tickets remaining unsold, and since the total available never dipped anywhere near as low as a hundred and three of the prospective party had colds, our friends didn't actually book, in case on the day one or more of us weren't feeling up to going out. In the event everybody had rallied sufficiently, and off we went.
The Electric Palace is not terribly big, and doesn't run to a lobby. There's a little recess in front with a wooden ticket booth, protected by an iron grille when the Palace is shut, and the queue stands outside along the pavement. When we arrived just before two for the two thirty showing there was no queue, and the grille was still closed. Through it a couple of the neighbours were berating the woman in the ticket booth to keep the noise down. Our friend thought that if you chose to live opposite a cinema that first opened its doors more than a century ago and is now a grade II* listed building you had better be prepared to put up with some noise from time to time. I dare say Sunset Song next weekend will be quieter.
You used to have to be a member to see films, though membership was very cheap, but that seems to have gone by the by. Nowadays they sometimes show live streaming from the National Theatre and the opera during the week, and I see they're doing big screen guides to a couple of art exhibitions. There were already live music gigs when we went previously, and we saw John Kirkpatrick's Christmas show there one year. It is a rather wonderful local effort. The building is owned by a charitable trust, after being saved from demolition in the early 1970s, and the staff are largely volunteers.
Star Wars was great fun. The auditorium was nowhere near full, but I suppose some fans will have been to see it in one of the local multiplexes sooner than a month after the release date. The audience there were behaved impeccably, including the children. I won't even try and review the film in case of inadvertent spoilers, but I confidently predict that after this we are going to be seeing a lot more of Daisy Ridley.
My only warning to anyone planning to visit The Electric Palace would be that at this time of the year it is not terribly warm. I'm so used to thinking of cinemas and theatres as places where you don't want to wrap up too well lest you overheat during the performance, but there is no risk of that in the Electric Palace in the middle of winter. I never removed my coat, was glad I hadn't changed out of my thermals before going out, and vaguely wished I'd worn a thicker sweater. If I'd thought it through properly I'd have guessed it wasn't going to be hot in there, in a cinema erected to 1911 building standards and operated as a charity by volunteers, with an auditorium that was not even full.
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