In January 2009 the doors closed and Ayr was a town without a theatre. The Civic Theatre had already been demolished because of asbestos. The Gaiety - the rococo Victorian variety house on Carrick Street, the one with the famous acoustics, the one that had been at the heart of the town's entertainment for more than a century - had run out of money and goodwill. South Ayrshire Council had not been able to justify the subsidy any longer. There was no plan. There was no funding. There was, however, a public meeting, attended by more than 400 people. That meeting, and what followed, is how the Gaiety came back.
The Ayr Gaiety was built in 1902 and lasted less than a year before fire took it - a not uncommon fate for early 20th-century theatres, with their gas lighting, oil rags, and wooden interiors. The fire broke out in August 1903, less than twelve months after opening night. The theatre was rebuilt and reopened. Its facade was remodelled in 1935. Another fire in 1955 forced another reinstatement. A 1995 annex added a new cafe, box office, dressing rooms, and studio space. Through all of it, the rococo interior - the gilded plasterwork, the curved boxes, the atmospheric acoustics that performers still talk about - remained the heart of the building. It is now category B listed: a working theatre that is also a piece of preserved Edwardian craftsmanship.
After a faltering start - including several years spent as a cinema after the First World War - the theatre was bought by Ben Popplewell, who had come south from Bradford and already ran the Pavilion theatre on Ayr seafront successfully. The Popplewell family ran the Gaiety for fifty years, latterly as part of the Glasgow Pavilion business. Under their management the Gaiety developed its signature programme: the Gaiety Whirl, a summer variety show that ran for 26 weeks at its height. Scottish and UK stars appeared regularly. Several careers were launched here. The programming was wider than music hall - there were weeks of Shakespeare and regular transfers from the Glasgow Citizens Theatre - but the variety tradition was the spine of the business.
In 1974, after seventy years in private hands, the local council acquired the freehold and ran the Gaiety as a municipal theatre. The summer Whirl continued. The Christmas panto was already entrenched at the core of the programme. But the council also broadened the scope: among other shows, the theatre hosted Borderline Theatre's production of Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo and a touring version of Oh Calcutta! - controversial choices that demonstrated the venue was not limiting itself to family fare. Decades passed. Audiences thinned. The capital investment the building needed became harder to justify against revenue subsidies that were already substantial. By the late 2000s the council had reached a decision.
The theatre closed in January 2009. The reaction was immediate and loud. A public meeting attracted over 400 attendees. The future of the Gaiety became a sustained subject in the local press. Scottish performers expressed dismay publicly. Social media filled with arguments. The council, perhaps surprised by the depth of feeling, invited tenders for the theatre's management in early 2009. A group of local residents formed Ayr Gaiety Partnership, a charity created specifically for the purpose, in the summer of 2009. AGP became the preferred bidder. Just over three years of negotiations and fundraising followed. With backing from the council and the Scottish Government, plus local fundraising, AGP secured a 99-year lease.
On 11 December 2012, after a great many last-minute challenges, the Gaiety reopened. The show was a panto - Cinderella, of course. It sold out, and the run extended to over 40 performances. The vision was always larger than just reopening: AGP set out "to re-energise the performing arts in South Ayrshire, with the Gaiety Theatre as the hub of a network of venues." Most of the people running the theatre - front of house, technical, fundraising, marketing, maintenance - are volunteers. The full-time staff team is just nine, led by Executive Director Jeremy Wyatt. The directors of AGP itself are local community figures: Ian Welsh, David Quayle, Chris Fremantle, Graham Peterkin, and Professor Gayle McPherson.
On Friday 19 September 2014, the Gaiety and the University of the West of Scotland's School of Media, Culture and Society jointly launched what they called Scotland's first Learning Theatre. Representatives from UWS, the Gaiety, and the National Theatre of Scotland attended. The arrangement combined a new BA Technical Theatre degree with hands-on use of the venue itself - stage management, lighting, sound, production - in a working theatre rather than a teaching studio. Students from UWS's undergraduate Performance programme also use the facilities. The Gaiety had spent fifty years being a Popplewell house, forty years being a municipal house, three years closed - and now, in its second century, was something it had never been before: a teaching theatre, owned by its community, kept running by the people who refused to lose it.
The Gaiety Theatre sits at 55.4614 N, 4.6315 W on Carrick Street in central Ayr, set within the dense Victorian and Edwardian streetscape of the town centre. From the air the theatre is one of several listed buildings clustered between the River Ayr and the Firth of Clyde. Glasgow Prestwick (EGPK) lies 3 nm north. Best viewing from 1,000-2,000 ft AGL; Ayr Beach and the Isle of Arran are visible to the west.