Inside the Quonset hut that houses the St. Brieux Midway Theatre. (Facebook/St. Brieux Midway Theatre)

By Alison Sandstrom

Movie Hut

Unique community space eyes upgrades

Oct 5, 2019 | 10:18 AM

If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you could drive by the St. Brieux Midway Theatre thinking it’s just another one of the many metal Quonset huts that dot rural Saskatchewan, perhaps full of farming machinery.

But take a closer look at the bright red front exterior and you’ll see a hint that this one is different.

Step inside, and you might be shocked to find yourself in a fully-fledged modern movie theatre. One-hundred-fifty-four seats face a raised platform where plush red curtains shield a large digital projection screen.

“We can get anything,” the theatre’s treasurer Elise Hauck told paNOW. “We do kids movies, drama, comedy. We just had It Two here this past weekend.”

The theatre as viewed from the street (Google Streetview/2009)

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Opened in 1951 as a farm equipment dealership, a few years later the owner’s son turned it into a cinema. It’s been playing movies ever since.

Today, the theatre is run entirely by volunteers.

They keep ticket prices low, $6 for an adult, $3 for a preschooler and kids under three years old get in free. Admissions cover the cost of bringing in some of the latest blockbusters.

“We’re not making lots of money, we break even. But we make enough to keep the doors open so that we can enjoy movies on the big screen as opposed to just watching it on your TV,” Hauck said.

Any extra revenue is reinvested back into the theatre and this spring they have their eyes on some upgrades.

“We’ve got some renovations we have to do in the back, it was leaking for a bit behind the screen,” Hauck said.

They also plan to redo the foyer and replace the concrete steps at the entrance with a wheelchair accessible ramp.

Movies play to the packed theatre every Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. between April and the first week of November.

Though they’ve experimented with opening during the winter, they found it hard to keep up attendance during hockey season.

With a nearly 70-year history of entertaining the community. Hauck says the midway has no plans of slowing down.

“We’re very eager and passionate to keep this going, you know we can send our kids there and it’s safe, it’s good fun, it’s affordable. So we’re definitely looking forward to the future with the theatre,” she said.

—With files from Ron Quaroni and Glenn Hicks

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom