Almost 30 years have passed since one of the biggest films in history remarkably had its UK premiere in the Welsh town of Carmarthen - and now people can relive the excitement all over again.
It was back in the summer of 1993 when Jurassic Park, one of the highest grossing films of all time, had its UK release. Perturbed by the fact that it was not going to be shown in the only cinema in Carmarthen - the Lyric Theatre - the woman running the venue, Liz Evans, together with then-mayor, Richard Goodridge, decided to act.
They sent a fax to the film’s director, Steven Spielberg, explaining their displeasure and imploring him to do something to help. The rest, as they say, is history, so much so that Sky recently made a film about it called Save the Cinema. Not only did the blockbuster dinosaur film get shown in Carmarthen, it got shown in Carmarthen before anywhere else in the country. You can read the incredible story of how and why it happened in full detail here.
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Since then, the cinema at the Lyric Theatre has long since closed - showing its final film in 2014. It made a comeback earlier this year to show Save the Cinema on the big screen, but apart from that it is now just a theatre rather than a cinema too. However, thanks to a local film club, Jurassic Park will once again be shown at the Lyric - 29 years on from ‘that night’ in Carmarthen. You can keep up to date with the latest Carmarthenshire news by signing up to the local newsletter here.
Carmarthen Film Club launched in 2015 and had been meeting monthly at the Lyric Theatre’s studio room on the first floor up until the outbreak of coronavirus. The club has shown classics over the past seven years from all eras including Some Like it Hot and Ghostbusters, while Lawrence of Arabia was the last film shown before the pandemic struck.
Before now, all films shown by the club were in the studio room due to the lack of a screen in the main auditorium, with the film club itself returning earlier this month with a screening of Singin’ in the Rain in the smaller room. However, after Save the Cinema was shown following its release in January, it has been confirmed that Jurassic Park will be screened in the main auditorium too.
It is hoped that the return of Spielberg’s action classic will mean film fans once again being able to pack the old theatre’s stalls to watch movies. While some films will continue to be shown in the studio room, it is understood that selected screenings from Carmarthen Film Club will be shown in the main theatre moving forward.
Jurassic Park will be shown at the Lyric in Carmarthen on Monday, April 11, at 7.30pm.
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