Gala dinner raises £27,000 for theatre productions

A GALA fundraiser raised £27,000 for a theatre which was saved by a lifeline donation last month.

The event on Sunday at the Mill at Sonning was held to raise money to support the productions next season.

A two-course lunch was followed by performances by the Everybody Sing Choir bel canto, and comedy performances by Peter Egan, Mark Curry, Debbie McGee and illusionist Michael Fitch.

Cameo appearances were also made over the course of the afternoon by Simon Williams, Rachel Pickup, Lucy Fleming and Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons.

An auction fetched £2,000 for prints of Noël Coward by artist-caricaturist Clive Francis and two limited edition prints signed by Dame Judi Dench went for £1,000.

Sally Hughes, the managing director of the theatre, compèred the evening.

Mrs Hughes shared an insight into the origins of the theatre, which was converted from a 1800s flour mill. She said her parents, Tim and Eileen Richards, purchased the building in the Eighties, which was then in a derelict state, and converted it into the only fully operating dinner-theatre in the country.

Last month, the theatre was saved by a lifeline donation from a group of local people following its launch of a crowdfunding campaign to raise £125,000 for it to remain open.

Mrs Hughes said the undisclosed sum was contributed by an anonymous consortium of five people, and was “nothing short of a miracle”.

Mrs Hughes, who has been running the theatre since 2002, said the funding would see the theatre through the busy Christmas period until March, when its new business plan would be in place.

The theatre employs 100 people across its restaurant, backstage and workshop and around 80 actors and creatives across a range of productions.