A Tyneside groom is following in his great grandfather’s footsteps when he treads the boards of Newcastle Theatre Royal on Saturday, but his won’t be any ordinary performance – the only line he needs to deliver is ‘I do’ !
Brett Devenish will marry his fiancée Kerry Drew on Saturday, on the stage of the beautiful Theatre Royal in Newcastle’s Grey Street. And he recently discovered that he won’t be the only family member to have trodden the famous boards.
Brett explained: “We found an old photo of my great grandfather helping someone into a costume and on the back of it was the caption ‘Joseph Armstrong dressing Abanazar, 1920s’ the picture is of him working as a dresser at the Theatre Royal and we did a bit of research on the internet and we think that the photo was taken in 1927 when the Wylie-Tate pantomime Aladdin was playing at the Theatre Royal.”
So Brett will be furthering the family connection with the Theatre on Saturday when he takes to the stage in front of over 100 audience members made up of family and friends and marries his fiancée Kerry. Bride-to-be Kerry said: “We wanted to get married somewhere a bit different, we didn’t want the usual hotel wedding and we were looking online and saw that you could get married at the Theatre Royal. We kept it in mind and then a little later we saw an article in the newspaper about a couple who’d held their ceremony at the theatre last year. We both thought that it looked so unusual so we started making enquiries and as soon as we saw how unique it would be we booked our wedding.”
The Cullercoats couple are one of two couples getting married during Newcastle Theatre Royal’s wedding week this summer, which takes advantage of the traditional ‘dark’ period at the theatre when no performances are scheduled.
But Brett says this will probably be the only time he gets up on stage: “I’m no performer” he said “but we do love going to the Theatre and I think this will be really special for my mum whose grandfather worked here, she thinks it’s really fitting.”
Brett and Kerry will marry in a private ceremony on the stage before sharing their evening reception with family and friends in the beautiful public spaces of Newcastle Theatre Royal including the decadent upper circle bar and stylish Olivier Suite.
The groom-to-be added: “We are so excited about getting married at the Theatre Royal on Saturday and can’t wait for people to share the day with us in this distinctive way. People were surprised when they got their invitations and if I had a pound for every time someone has said to me they didn’t know you could get married at the theatre then I could probably have paid for the wedding! But that’s exactly why we chose it – we wanted our wedding to be unique!”
For more information about hiring Newcastle Theatre Royal please visit www.theatreroyal.co.uk/hospitality or contact the development team on [email protected] or 0191 244 2599.