Lupen Crook features alongside Billy Childish and Oliver Burgess in Dave Wise’s forthcoming documentary Final Curtain At The Theatre Royal.  The film was shot in Chatham’s beautiful, decaying Theatre Royal building a few days before it was demolished earlier this year.

Yesterday, Kent News published an interview with Dave that explains his motivation behind the film, which was to preserve a record of the building’s interior before it was reduced to rubble.  Sadly, a local initiative to restore the theatre – originally closed in 1955 – had come to nothing.

The film will be screened at The Command House in Chatham on Wednesday August 12th (8pm, £3 entry, also includes poetry performances) and will be available to view online at www.davewise.biz and www.hakimslater.com from 6pm the following day.

If you’re curious to know more and can’t wait until next week, here’s a Flickr slideshow that shows the Theatre Royal before, during and after its demolition.  This thread on the 28dayslater forum is also worth a look.  Something very special has been lost.