THREE familiar faces appeared at the Borough Theatre this week when former front of house manager Terry Monaghan, and box office assistants Jane Griffiths and Carol Paton called in to inspect a new row of seats donated to the theatre by A4B

The seats were rescued from the theatre before its refurbishment and have been restored and recovered to provide a comfortable stopping off place in the theatre’s box office and a reminder of how the theatre looked after its first refurbishment way back in the late 1980s..

The five seats mark the four amateur theatre companies which have made their ‘home’ at the Borough Theatre - AAODS, which until recently has performed at the Borough for over 100 years, Abergavenny Pantomime Company - thought to be the oldest amateur panto group in Wales, Abergavenny Theatre Group, which has been at the Borough for more than 50 years and relative newcomer Breakthrough Productions which has been performing at the Borough for almost 30 years.

Money to refurbish the seating was raised by A4B, the umbrella group which supports the theatre’s amateur companies.

“The seats were originally planned to mark the tenth anniversary of the A4B awards but sadly the pandemic and the delays in re-opening the theatre got in the way of that,” explained A4B chair Liz Davies.

“From aiming for a gala celebration we were forced to hold the tenth A4B awards online but were were delighted when our main sponsors Complete Weed Control Wales and the West Ltd asked for their donation to be put towards the cost of the refurbishment.

“Lots of other people donated money they woiuld have spent on tickets and we were able to use this toward the restoration of the seats dedicated to the local companies,” said Liz.

“We hope box office customers will be able to make use of them and maybe remember the many happy hours they have spent at the Borough Theatre in the past watching productions from these groups,” she added.

It was fitting that among the first people to test out the seats were Terry, Jane and Carol, who between them notched up almost 100 years of experience working at the theatre both on and off stage and as A4B members.

Thankfully the seats passed the comfort test and were deemed to be ‘extremely comfortable’ and ‘beautifully upholstered’ by the trio of theatre experts!