{"id":681182,"date":"2026-01-08T01:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/681182\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T01:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:44:15","slug":"charles-nowosielski-at-the-brunton-theatre-bella-caledonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/681182\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Nowosielski at the Brunton Theatre \u2013 Bella Caledonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Musselburgh faces the prospect of the demolition of the Brunton Theatre, Graeme Purves<\/b> look back to its heyday in the 1980s and early \u201890s.<\/p>\n

In October 2024, Musselburgh\u2019s Brunton Memorial Hall complex, which includes the theatre, was closed because of the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in the roof panelling.\u00a0 East Lothian Council is now pursuing its demolition and replacement by a new arts venue integrated with commercial development.<\/p>\n

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The building is a modernist concrete and glass structure designed by Wiliam Kininmonth and opened in 1971.\u00a0 In the early years, the theatre was used mainly for pantomime and productions by local amateur groups, with occasional performances by touring companies. In 1979, East Lothian District Council asked Sandy Neilson to form a company to present an eight-week season of drama. Neilson was succeeded as artistic director by Ian Granville-Bell.<\/p>\n

In 1986, Charles Nowosielski was appointed artistic director at the Brunton Theatre. Richard Cherns, who had played keyboard for Runrig, joined him as Musical Director.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nowosielski had studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1975.\u00a0 His directorial debut was at Dundee Rep, where he directed a series of short plays, including Joan Ure\u2019s Something in it for Cordelia.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0In 1981, Nowosielski and Cherns had founded Theatre Alba, with the aim of promoting diversity in Scottish theatre by producing plays in Scots and encouraging new Scottish writing. Notable successes had included Edward Stiven\u2019s Tamlane (1981), Netta. B. Reid\u2019s The Shepherd Beguiled (1982), and David Purves\u2019s The Puddok an the Princess (1985).<\/p>\n

The Guardian described the Brunton Theatre Company\u2019s first programme under its new directors, which featured Joan Littlewood\u2019s Oh What a Lovely War!, Robert Bolt\u2019s A Man for All Seasons, and Sydney Goodsir Smith\u2019s The Wallace, as an \u201camazingly bold winter drama season\u201d.\u00a0 The Company\u2019s 1987\/88 season was no less ambitious, including productions of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret, with Alan Cumming in the role of Cliff Bradshaw and Anne Smith as Sally Bowles, and Jay Presson Allen\u2019s adaptation of Muriel Spark\u2019s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.\u00a0 In her review of the latter, Rosemary Goring wrote that under Nowosielski\u2019s sharp direction the Company had presented the story of Miss Brodie \u2018with compelling and fresh dramatic force\u2019.<\/p>\n

Other notable productions at the Brunton included Goodrich and Hackett\u2019s The Diary of Anne Frank (1988), Alexander Reid\u2019s The Warld\u2019s Wonder (1988), Anton Chekov\u2019s The Seagull (1989), Hector MacMillan\u2019s The Rising (1989), Daphne du Maurier\u2019s Rebecca (1990), and George Bernard Shaw\u2019s Saint Joan (1990).\u00a0 The Company staged two Edinburgh International Festival productions, James Bridie\u2019s Holy Isle, which opening at the Church Hill Theatre in Edinburgh, with Vivien Heilbron in the role of Margause, Queen of Orkney (1988), and Robert Silver\u2019s The Bruce (1991).\u00a0 In the 1980s and early \u201890s, Brunton Theatre Company productions were reviewed in The List alongside those at theatres in Edinburgh and Glasgow.<\/p>\n

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Nowosielski left the Brunton in 1991 to take up the post of Artistic Director at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.\u00a0 He returned to Scotland in 1993, establishing the MPR Theatre Studio in Musselburgh.\u00a0 In 1998, Theatre Alba was invited to mount its Festival Fringe productions in Duddingston Kirk Gardens, where Nowosielski and Cherns directed plays annually until 2016.<\/p>\n

Charlie Nowosielski died on 5th May 2020.\u00a0 It would be good to see a revival of the theatrical creativity, glamour and panache he brought to Musselburgh!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Musselburgh faces the prospect of the demolition of the Brunton Theatre, Graeme Purves look back to its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-681182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115856950419218835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}