Opera house chairperson excited by venue's future

Jersey Opera House's interim chairperson says she does not see the role as a "poisoned chalice" after becoming the third person to take it on in 2025.

Laura Robertson took on the position at the St Helier venue on Thursday, 24 hours after the resignation of Cyril Whelan, who stepped down two months after taking over from Dave Chalk.

The venue - which has undergone a £13m renovation - has also been dealing with other resignations, with interim director Andy Eagle stepping down in April and Bruno Santos-Costa also leaving his role as a board member.

Ms Robertson said all the resignations were due to personal reasons and a lot of hard work was ongoing to get an exciting programme on at the venue.

The Grade II listed held its first concerts in five years in May, with two Liberation Day concerts ahead of the official reopening, which is expected to take place in October.

Ms Robertson said she was "desperate" to get a strong programme of shows and looking forward to being the interim chairperson.

She said: "I'm certainly not personally viewing the job as a poisoned chalice.

"Why I joined the board in the first place 18 months ago is because the building is the first real experience I had of theatre as a kid.

"When Cyril chose to leave for his own personal reasons, having been on the board for 13 years, which is an amazing stint, I really wanted to help push us into the new, exciting chapter for the opera house and get the community back in there."

Ms Robertson said the venue was facing some technical challenges ahead of its reopening, but its managing board was facing those head on.

She added the venue was committed to making sure it had everything it needed to provide an exciting programme of shows.

"We'll be making some technical upgrades to things like lighting and sound in very short order so we can keep delivering what the public would like," she said.

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