A drama revival was today unveiled for Southend Pier with the launch of an all-weather theatre.

Francis McGinty, manager of the Pier Pavilion, has teamed up with Southend-based Pinpoint Productions to bring a season of tragedy and comedy to the open-air venue this summer.

A new 20ft-diameter round stage will be added to the Pavilion, along with a temporary canvas roof which can be hauled shut to shield the audience from bad weather.

Mary-Ann Connolly, producer at Pinpoint Productions, said the stage and canvas roof would guarantee "the show will go on come rain or shine".

She said: "It's going to look like a bandstand with a circus tent over it.

"If the weather is grotty, then the canvas will be pulled in to offer protection from the elements. But when it's nice weather, it is lovely to sit in the open air.

"It seems to me the Pavilion is the town's best- kept secret and a season of open-air plays will go down really well. This sort of entertainment is just what people need in Southend."

Mr McGinty is working with Southend Council to see if the temporary roof needed planning permission. He added: "We have been trying to this sort this out for three years now.

"This is what the Pavilion was built for in the first place, but it's only now that the council is in a position to allow us to do this sort of thing from a train access point of view.

"The roof will be almost like roller blinds which go up from the sides of the Pavilion and into the centre."

Peggy Dowie, chairman of the Pier Museum Foundation, has welcomed the prospect of more entertainment at the end of Southend Pier but said the long-term plan should be to bring permanent buildings to the end of the pier.

She said: "Anything that provides entertainment at the end of the pier under cover is very welcome. If it brings more people and benefits to the pier then it would be silly to say no to that. But we would want to see a permanent theatre at the end of the pier providing a variety of entertainment together with other buildings that will offer further attractions as well."

It is not the first time Pinpoint Productions has put on a show at the Pier Pavilion. In the summer of 1998, the theatre company performed A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.

The production will be revived for this year's summer season which runs from June 29 to September 9.

Other plays include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Abigail's Party, Teachers, A Girl's Night Out and A Starlight Revue which includes traditional end-of-pier entertainment from a double act to dancers.

The end of the pier shows used to pull in trippers and residents alike.

The original pavilion was much grander than the current building and took up most of the pierhead.

It was home to a variety of attractions.

In the 1960s, when the old borough council allowed bars on the pier the ground floor contained the Royal Sovereign Cocktail Bar for the more upmarket customers. There was also the Jolly Fisherman, which is now McGintys.

Upstairs in earlier years was the Sundeck Theatre, which was a true theatre with a stage and played host in the 1960s to Arthur English with an old time music hall.

When the pierhead was taken over in the early 1970s by a major leisure group, it became the Diamond Horseshoe Showbar, with dancing, entertainment and live bands.

Before it was destroyed by fire, the pavilion was taken back under council control and the bars let out to a private operator with entertainment upstairs.

There was also a cafe on the ground floor as well as amusements and the Royal Sovereign, which was designed to look like a pleasure steamer.

Picture, top: Pavilion - the setting for a new era of open-air and covered shows at the end of Southend's famous pier.

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