Curtain comes down on Rolle College drama

Board Members of Rolle Exmouth Ltd (REL) last week said goodbye to the college campus they had fought tirelessly to preserve for future generations.

Following a six-year battle to retain the site for education, training, business incubation and community use, REL had to admit defeat when the entire Rolle campus was sold by Plymouth University to Exeter Deaf Academy (EDA).

After handing over the keys to an EDA representative on 30 November as agreed, three REL Board Members took one last look at the auditorium in the Owen Building, where an Exeter-based touring theatre company had been allowed to continue rehearsing for their Christmas show.

All five members of the Le Navet Bête physical comedy theatre company are graduates of Rolle College from the time when the college was still a thriving teacher training institution, before it closed in 2008.

Despite REL being directed to vacate the Owen Building by the end of November, Le Navet Bête (rough translation Daft Turnip), who are linked to Plymouth University, were authorised to continue rehearsing in the theatre space at Rolle up to 2 December, before transferring on 4 December to the Barbican Theatre, where they will perform their version of The Jungle Book up to Christmas and into the New Year.

REL’s Acting Chairman Roy Pryke said: “It’s a tad ironic that the last people to make use of the fantastic theatre space at Rolle were members of a touring theatre company. We’ve been on a very solid mission with community backing and it’s a real shame that REL is now seeking a different stage on which to perform the important functions that we were formed to enact.

“We had been working with Plymouth University and negotiating with them in good faith for a number of years. We were completely unaware that they had another buyer waiting in the wings”.

He said the Board were expecting to meet before Christmas to discuss current status and next steps and would call a special meeting of shareholders early in the New Year.

He went on: “It’s so important to keep our backers informed and up to speed with the state of play. We know that they signed up to help fund our dream of building a fresh function for the Rolle campus and it’s bitterly disappointing to have to say goodbye to that option.

“But we have already achieved a good deal of our purpose in preserving the site for educational use and saving it from housing development. Now we need to regroup and work out a new strategy to achieve REL’s aims.

“We’ve proved not only a need for business incubation but have shown that it can be delivered – with a number of small new-tech firms having already set up in business. We are proud to have been the inspiration and catalyst for that and we profoundly hope that they will continue to thrive and grow in a new setting that we know they are currently working to identify.

Referring to the forthcoming production by Le Navet Bête, Roy Pryke added: “Kipling’s original story featured a new-born being nurtured by a friendly pack of wolves before growing up and battling with the mighty tiger Shere Khan. My imaginative side sees some parallels between that fable and the real-life tussle that the REL board – whilst nurturing start-up businesses – had with the daunting giant that is Plymouth University.

“Without giving away the wacky plot of the upcoming rather unpredictable production of The Jungle Book, let’s just remember that it was Mowgli who triumphed in the end…”