Two sessions a night, one interval, no screen
The projector stopped in 1987 and the neon out the front has been rewired twice since. Everything else — the plaster fluting, the raked floor, the box upstairs — is where the builders left it in 1938. Cards are played for points, never for money.
A picture palace with the seats taken out
Eight hundred and forty seats came out of the stalls in 1992 and went to a hall in Junee. The rake underneath them turned out to be sound, so we levelled it in sections and put card tables on the terraces instead of rows.
The projection box is still up there behind its little square windows, complete with the second projector and a stack of carbon rods nobody has touched. It is not open to the public and not much use to us either.
The neon sign was the expensive part of the renovation and the only part we would do again without hesitating.
- Eleven tables
- Spread across three terraces where the stalls used to rake.
- Supper, not dinner
- A short Riverina menu, served hardest during the interval.
- The deco is original
- Plaster, terrazzo and the ticket window, all 1938.
The conditions of entry, in six lines
- The whole building is licensed and the whole building is 18 and over. Bring photo ID.
- Chips are scorekeeping tokens owned by the house. They have no monetary value and are never cashed.
- Nothing is wagered on any hand in this room, and money passed between players ends the session.
- There are no gaming machines on the premises. There is no screen, no app and no online room either.
- The interval is twenty minutes. If you leave the building during it, tell the floor.
- The bar refuses service to anyone who has had enough, and books a cab without being asked twice.
Eleven tables on three terraces
The games are social ones — euchre, five hundred, gin rummy and a friendly hold'em table that has run every Saturday since we opened. No hand carries a stake and no evening ends with a payout.
Chips are the house's and they count points, nothing more. They are not sold, not exchanged and not worth a cent past the end of the night.
The top terrace is the quiet one; the bottom terrace, nearest the bar, is not. Say which you want when you ring and we will do our best.
- Top terrace
- Four tables, low light, the quiet end of the room.
- Middle terrace
- Five tables, first-come, no booking taken.
- Bottom terrace
- Two tables that can be reserved for groups of up to eight.
Riverina beef, Riverina rice, Riverina citrus
The kitchen is small and unapologetic about it. Beef comes from a family operation past Uranquinty, the rice from the irrigation country west of here, and the citrus from whichever grower has fruit worth buying that month.
Most of the cooking happens in the twenty minutes of the interval, which is why the menu is deliberately short and nothing on it takes longer than that.
The wine list stays local: cool-climate whites from up the mountain, shiraz from the Hilltops, and a couple of bottles from Gundagai that we buy a pallet of at a time.
- From the paddock
- Grass-fed beef, one cut a week, cooked over the grill.
- From the bays
- Rice done three ways, one of them always meat-free.
- From the trees
- Citrus in the desserts and half the cocktails.
Five nights, two sessions each
| Night | Sessions | Programme |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 6pm & 8:45pm | Euchre in the top terrace, teaching table at six |
| Friday | 6pm & 8:45pm | Both sessions full, supper booked out by seven |
| Saturday | 6pm & 8:45pm | Friendly hold'em on the bottom terrace, points only |
| Sunday | 5pm & 7:30pm | Early programme, gin rummy, closes at ten |
| Monday | 6pm only | Single session, half the tables, no kitchen after nine |
| Tuesday | Closed | Cellar delivery and a very quiet building |
| Wednesday | Closed | Nobody rostered on |
What is left of the theatre
Six things people ring about
Do you still show films?
Not one. The projector has been dead since 1987 and the screen came down years before we arrived. The name and the neon are all that survived of the cinema business.
Can I play through the website?
No — there is no account, no app and no online room. This site tells you the programme and the address, and that is the extent of it.
Is there money on the tables?
None at all. Chips count points for the session, they cannot be bought or redeemed, and no hand here has a stake, a pot or a prize.
What about pokies?
No gaming machines of any kind. The nearest thing to a machine in the building is a dead projector nobody is allowed near.
What is a double feature?
Two sessions in one night with a twenty-minute interval between them, borrowed from what the theatre used to do. Come for one session or stay for both.
Can I bring somebody under 18 for supper?
Unfortunately not. The licence covers every terrace and the foyer, so nobody under 18 comes in.
Where the theatre is and when it opens
86 Baylis Street, Wagga Wagga NSW 2650
+61 2 6921 4405 · frontofhouse@playventix.com
Thursday to Monday, 5pm – 1am
Who is holding which job
A picture theatre needed nine people on a Saturday. We manage with five, and the titles have stuck even though the work behind them has changed entirely.
Book a seat in either session
The phone is answered from four in the afternoon. Say which session you want, whether you are eating, and how many are coming — nothing else is needed.
Ring the front of house