The Context
Connswater Shopping Centre is an indoor retail mall based in East Belfast, with almost 60 stores offering food, fashion, footwear and jewellery, plus fast food dining.
EastSide Arts mission is to inspire EastSide residents and visitors by celebrating East Belfast, nurturing creative talent and delivering excellent programmes and events. They are part of EastSide Partnership, a regeneration organisation that has been making the area a better place to live, work and visit for more than 20 years.
August 2017 saw the beginning of the relationship between Connswater Shopping Centre and EastSide Arts; this was a natural fit, with both partners sharing a commitment to making a positive impact in East Belfast.
These long-standing creative partners wanted to find a way to celebrate and engage with the East Belfast community in a creative way, following Lockdown One of the COVID pandemic in 2020. They aspired to give their prospective audiences a boost, and entertain them with content relevant to their area, delivered in a safe way.
The Solution
Connswater Shopping Centre and Eastside Arts joined forces to deliver a new play entitled ‘The King of East Belfast’, written by Stephen Beggs, and produced by Kabosh Theatre Company in an empty unit in the Connswater mall. Performances took place in August 2020 as part of the EastSide Arts Festival, with ‘The King of East Belfast’ being lauded as the first live theatre to take place in Ireland after the first COVID lockdown.
The King of East Belfast tells the story of Clarke Groves Senior, a leading businessman in the Newtownards Road area in the 1950’s. The play was developed by Stephen Beggs, the husband of Clarke Groves’ granddaughter, and was thoroughly researched by him and Clarke Groves Junior (Stephen’s father-in-law). With the support of EastSide Lives, a community heritage project run by EastSide Tourism, the foundations were laid. Stephen then worked with Kabosh to develop the research into a 60 minute theatre show that was performed in the heart of the area where Clarke Groves Senior ran his shop. Many older people who saw the show were life-long residents of the area and actually remembered Clarke from their younger days.
The King of East Belfast brought local history to life through high quality theatre, performed for the local community in the shopping centre on their doorstep. The one-man show staged 13 sold out performances for 269 attendees in an empty shop unit within the shopping centre. The drama was performed twice daily and achieved critical acclaim from far and wide. Press and media coverage included reports on the BBC and in the Guardian!
The successful performance also helped cement Connswater’s reputation as a community-orientated organisation, underscoring their commitment to delivering experiences for their shoppers above and beyond their retail offering.
“As centre Manager for Connswater, I have found partnering with local artists and arts organisations to be invaluable and something that we intend to build on in the future. We are a community based shopping centre and through our work with these groups and individuals, we are able to better connect with our customers on a grass roots level. Events, pop-ups and exhibitions really help to animate the centre and can be a huge window of opportunity to give exposure to the rich tapestry of talent in our community. I wholeheartedly believe that these sorts of partnerships are mutually beneficial and can work on many levels to enrich public spaces and connect people with art in new ways. I can’t emphasise enough how important the support and Investment Programme match funding are to us as a business. It really allows us to push the boundaries and achieve more than we could have alone.”
Mark Rainey, Centre Manager, Connswater Shopping Centre
“Connswater was prepared to take a risk with ourselves and Kabosh Theatre Company to stage the first post-lockdown live indoor theatre performance on the island, The King of East Belfast. The show was so popular we had to add additional dates, and we are very grateful to A&B for supporting us to programme a special additional show for Connswater traders. The goodwill and positive publicity following The King of East Belfast led us to deliver the Connswater Rooftop Recess in EastSide Arts Festival in 2021.”
Rachel Kennedy, Manager, EastSide Arts and Director of EastSide Arts Festival and C.S. Lewis Festival
