Adam Smith: new name for Fife theatre, but tagline can wait til it opens

We forge strong alliances with places and even products - a Snickers bar will always be a Marathon to my generation while I never called an Opal Mint a Pacer. Just no’ right.

But times change and eras end, opening the door to a fresh look and a new name to herald a new start.

And so, the Adam Smith Theatre is set to become The Adam Smith - nothing so radical it will shake the foundations of the substantial stone building, but I suspect it will spark a reaction. The shock of the new.

And below it will sit a tagline which aims to sum up what it means and what it does.

That’s where it can get tricky.

Of the three options floated publicly - Kirkcaldy's Cultural Heart or Cultural Heart of Kirkcaldy (all the same words, not necessarily in the right order to paraphrase a comedy legend) or The Place for Inspiration, I’m firmly in the “none of the above” box.

Option four is open to the public, and I suspect, and hope, the final choice comes from them.

But here’s a question - why do we need to decide now?

I’m not sure we know what The Adam Smith will be yet.

It’s still a building site, fenced off and closed to the public. Maybe we should hang fire until we get a feel for the place?

The transition from traditional civic theatre to creative hub is ambitious. The buzz that comes from the venue when in full use, and from the shows it stages - from comedy to cinema - should shape the final wording.

The venue has endured for 124 years without a tagline, but if it needs one then let’s make it something that chimes with ordinary folk, and sums up what they feel about the place, and not the end result of focus groups which is where the best ideas all go to be bludgeoned into

corporate greyness.

Whatever is chosen won’t appeal to everyone, but what really matters is The Adam Smith needs to wow us with its programming every bit as much as its new look.

Buildings are just brick, windows and walls. It’s how we use them, how they hum with activity and vibrancy that really counts, and, after three years absence, we need this grand old lady to shimmy into the spotlight with sassiness and with a desire to knock our socks off from the opening night. It has to up the stakes when it comes to live entertainment.

There must always be a place for our am-dram groups - this is their home after all - but I also want to see the biggest names possible gracing the stage again.

This is the venue after all which has hosted every single light entertainment star of the 1970s onward as well as big names from Frankie Boyle to The Proclaimers, from Gerard Kelly to Robbie Coltrane and many, many more. That sprinkling of stardust at The Adam Smith has been increasingly thin in recent years - much in the same way that Rothes Halls no longer hosts bands of the calibre of Stereophonics which feels a waste of a 1000-capacity venue which ought to be on the radar of all promoters.

Deliver that and the tagline will write itself.