My Home City - Reflections on my early years in Plymouth 9

 The Palace Theatre - Plymouth  by Rev’d Paul Collings

The theatre was built in the Flemish Renaissance style in 1898, with the interior in an Art Nouveau style, with nautical features. It is now deteriorating while an agreement is reached about its future and it is listed as an "at risk" building. It is a grade II* listed building.

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honours him. - Proverbs 14:31 

There stands the Palace Theatre,

A shadow of it’s past. 

A place of laughter and of mirth

Whilst memories still last,

Of pantomimes that thrilled young minds

Performed by willing casts.

Here too, at annual Scout Gang Show,

I sang and there performed

A cornet medley  on the stage

“The Lost Chord’s” notes that framed

Monastic scene where two young boys

Brought comfort as monks prayed.

Yet as I view that place today

And see it’s sad decay,

It’s former glory, now long past,

A facade of dismay;

I bring to mind another stage

Where broken lives display.

Such promise in their days of youth

Of hope, now long since crushed

As moth and rust’s corruption takes

It’s deadly toll, now dashed

Upon the passing rocks of time

Where shattered lives are smashed.

Lord help me see in broken lives

Your drama there unfold,

As on the stage of life you show

A buried treasure, gold 

And as I take a lower part

Help them regain, stand bold.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

 – Mahatma Gandhi