Simon brings the curtain down after 30 years with the Castle Players

A young Simon Pell, aged 23

A STALWART of The Castle Players has called it a day after 30 years.

Simon Pell, who has designed and directed 20 of the Players’ summer productions, will continue to offer advice and help to the amateur dramatics group that has become an integral part of arts scene in Barnard Castle, but he can no longer dedicate the time needed for his former role.

Hundreds of people flock to the grounds of The Bowes Museum each year to marvel at the troupe’s annual Shakespeare production.

Mr Pell said his decision to leave was a combination of health issues and work commitments. The type one diabetic was put on an insulin pump six months ago and is currently in the full time role of stage manager and designer for Middlesborough College Theatre.

He said it is sad to leave the group which he joined soon after it had formed. Mr Pell said: “I moved up from London in 1987 and The Castle Players had been going for about a year. The legend is that it was formed in the Old Well Inn during a blackout when everyone started playing charades.”

It was after putting on Tom Stoppard’s Fifteen Minute Hamlet, at Mr Pell’s suggestion, that The Castle Players turned their attention to putting on their first summer show, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mr Pell designed and directed the inaugural production. He said: “In 1989 we had to borrow money to do it, but it was a huge success.”

Over the years the production moved between being staged in the walls of Barnard Castle and The grounds of The Bowes Museum. Before coming to the town, Mr Pell had a successful career in the south after completing six years studying at Loughborough College of Art and Design.

He started out at the Haymarket Theatre, in Leicester, helping to create the sets for some of the large musicals that were premiered in the provinces before going to the West End. A move to London followed where he worked on stages throughout the West End and helped paint the original sets of Cats and Les Miserables. He also rubbed shoulders with the likes of Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webb, Harold Pinter, Sir Cameron McKintosh and Sir Peter Hall.

One memorable moment was when he had to paint the set around Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Sarah Brightman while the rehearsed. Mr Pell said: “That was surreal.”

It was, however, while painting the set for Lyttleton Theatre’s 1981 production of The Importance of Being Ernest that he met one of the dames of British Theatre. He said: “One of my favourite actors is Judi Dench – she actually trained to be a set a designer.”

Ironically, Mr Pell admits starting out with the hope of being an actor but thought the profession too “precarious” and turned instead to set design. His move to Teesdale came about after he secured a six-month contract for Durham Theatre Company, based at the former Darlington Arts Centre.

Since then he has worked on the sets of more than 200 shows for regional and touring companies in the region. More recently he was resident designer for The Georgian Theatre Royal, in Richmond, and was instrumental in designing their first show Joseph Grimaldi – King of Clowns since it was closed in 1848. He was also resident designer for the Gala Theatre, in Durham. Currently the 59-year-old is hard at work preparing the set for Middlesborough College theatre’s pantomime Treasure Island.

His favourite Castle Players production were the first and last he directed in 1989 and 2013. Both were A Midsummer Night’s Dream.