THE silver screen is coming back to the Opera House after half a century.
A legal covenant stopped films being shown at the venue after it was sold by the Odeon Company in the 1950s – but the board of the Opera House say that because the Jersey Odeon company no longer exists, the covenant has fallen away.
Last summer, the board got around the covenant to show Singalonga Sound of Music by claiming that the audience participation made the show a live performance, not a simple film screening.
But for the upcoming Branchage Film Festival, the documentary Man On Wire will be shown on 25 September – without any live performance at all.
Opera House chairman Advocate Christopher Lakeman says that because the company that set up the covenant no longer exists, it cannot be binding.
But he added that showing films would not become part of the ‘core business’ of the Opera House.
Pictured: Patrons attend the last film showing at the Opera House in December 1958
