Interview with theatre impresario Dame Rosemary Squire on the occasion of Chiswick Cinema’s fifth birthday

Dame Rosemary Squire

‘Event cinema’ – the reason why Chiswick has a cinema

Dame Rosemary Squire and her husband and business partner Sir Howard Panter are considered two of the world’s leading theatre impresarios.

They built the world’s largest and most successful live theatre business, the Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd, together and ran it for 25 years before setting up Trafalgar Entertainment, the award-winning global live-entertainment business which owns 23 venues, including Chiswick Cinema, the only cinema in their portfolio.

Dame Rosemary talked to The Chiswick Calendar on the occasion of Chiswick Cinema’s fifth birthday.

Chiswick Cinema, launch night 2021

The obvious question was ‘why?’ Why would a couple so steeped in theatre and live entertainment build a cinema?

The answer is Trafalgar Releasing, the arm of Trafalgar Entertainment which looks after ‘event cinema’, offering audiences the chance to share in the atmosphere of live events – concerts, theatre, opera, ballet in over 15,000 + cinemas.

Current examples at Chiswick Cinema include the National Theatre’s productions of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and All My Sons. The programme for the coming year includes Giant in the autumn and the Royal Ballet’s Swan Lake and Romeo & Juliet next spring.

Aidan Turner and Lesley Manville in Les Liasons Dangereuses; National Theatre Live (2026)

What to Chiswick cinema goers might be an interesting addition to the diet of blockbusters and art films they expect to see at their local cinema, is a major growth area for Trafalgar.

They are able to bring their own theatre productions to a wider audience for whom a trip to the West End to see one of the big shows would be a major, and expensive excursion.

For those of us for whom the West End is a just a short Tube ride is away, it offers the possibility of seeing a wider range of live productions – those you’re not sure whether you want to see enough to spend the money on, and schlep into town to see.

“The West End can be very hugger-mugger. It can be a bit threatening when it’s heaving late at night”, says Rosemary.

It is the same rationale which has led her and her partner to invest in the Bridge theatre, which they have just acquired, and the British Airways theatre in the newly opened entertainment complex at Olympia – bringing live and as-live events to the audience nearer to where they live.

Macbeth: David Tennant & Cush Jumbo (2025); Donmar Warehouse / Trafalgar Releasing

“David Tennant’s Macbeth was a huge success”

Chiswick Cinema is the place where Trafalgar Releasing projects are launched.

“We launched Kiss Me Kate and The King and I and invited all the cast along”, Rosemary told me. “David Tennant in Macbeth was a huge success”.

Filmed during the Donmar Warehouse’s sell-out, five star production starring David Tennant and Kush Jumbo as Lady Macbeth, the screen version was praised not just because it brought the production to those who could not get tickets to see it live:

‘As for the cameras, there’s plenty they can see that the eyes miss while watching from a single seat. I got a heightened sense of the twitching paranoia possessing the Macbeths through extreme close-ups of Tennant and Jumbo’s fearful eyes, and felt more sure of their twisted commitment to obtain power at any cost’ – Holly O’Mahoney, London Theatre Live

Event cinema is where the money is. The market—valued at USD 1.45 billion in 2024—is projected to reach USD 3.62 billion by 2032, according to a study by market research consultants Market Intelo published in November.

Chiswick Cinema opening night 2021

“We will do our very best to protect Chiswick Cinema”

That might go some way to explaining why Chiswick Cinema has survived thus far. Cinemas are under threat from live streaming platforms. The window in which audiences can only see a new film at the cinema has diminished. Cinema audiences are declining and costs are rising.

“It’s tough”, Rosemary admitted. “After Covid it has been tougher than anyone expected and cinemas have been the worst hit of any entertainment business”.

The cinema business has recovered “almost” to where it was before Covid, she said.

“I was very pleasantly surprised by the May results and there are some good, strong releases coming out this year”.

How far would Trafalgar Entertainment go to protect its cinema? While not making any promises, her reply was:

“We have a real commitment to it and we will do our very best to protect it”.

The Karel Reisz season and the Richard Attenborough season – two of the screening programmes which have made Chiswick Cinema distinctive

“A high quality boutique cinema embedded in its neighbourhood”

Has it been a success? Maybe not financially, but in other ways, yes it has.

“Chiswick is a lovely place, it’s a great location. There are lots of performers we work with both in cinema and theatre who live around there.

“We are always analysing the data and a high proportion of people who book tickets to see things at the Barbican for example live in west London. There is a strong interest in theatre and cinema”.

Chris Parker, the cinema’s Programme and Marketing Manager, has done “a phenomenal job” of audience development – “putting together a programme which differentiates the cinema and makes it more interesting, more fun”.

Initiatives such as ‘Bring Your Own Baby’ comedy nights and baby friendly screenings of adult films, where the sound volume is a bit lower, and ‘knit flicks’ where you can sit and knit throughout, are reaching out to new audiences.

Noirvember and the Pinter on Screen series

His programming of live events around film screenings has allowed local residents to see live Q&As with the likes of Jeremy Irons, Charles Dance, Eddie Marsan, Ben Kingsley, Penelope Wilton, Geraldine James, producer James Ivory and the cast of Downton Abbey, and that has done the all-important job, from Rosemary’s point of view of growing the audience.

“Not a lot of cinemas are seeing audience development”.

She and Sir Howard have come to some of the live events and she hopes to be at the fifth birthday party on Tuesday 14 July.

“We went to one of the Pinter screenings and I’m looking forward to the Simon Gray series – he was a great writer”.

READ ALSO: Chiswick Cinema celebrates its fifth birthday

Chiswick Cinema is, she said: “a high quality boutique cinema embedded in its neighbourhood”.

“Sharing a story and doing that collectively is one of the things that makes us human”

She admits there have been problems on the operational side which have caused frustration for the cinema’s regulars, when the bar is closed because they are short staffed, or the air conditioning packs up, or they run out of coffee.

“We have a new manager who has come from our High Wycombe theatre. He is a very experienced operator, and he is getting on top of the operational side”.

Dame Rosemary and her husband were given the Honorary Freedom of the Borough in Woking, where they live, in 2019, in recognition of their long service to the community, so I believed her when she talked about the importance of a theatre or a cinema to its local community.

“A theatre or a cinema is a hub, a magnet. When I was growing up you would do things more communally. You would go to Sunday school and church, and to youth clubs.

“There are very few cross-generational things people get to do now but sharing a story and doing that collectively is one of the things that makes us human”.

Rosemary was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in The Queen’s New Year Honours list 2018 for services to Theatre and Philanthropy, but she is also a big fan of cinema.

“My first job was in a cinema when I was 16, serving the Kia-Ora and the popcorn. Then I graduated to the box office. I’ve seen Cabaret 62 times, and I still prefer watching films on a big screen”.