Arts Correspondent Brian Ferguson hears from John Robb, project manager for Capital Theatres’ refurbishment of the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh.
Arts Correspondent Brian Ferguson hears from John Robb, project manager for Capital Theatres’ refurbishment of the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh.
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00:00Hi, I'm Brian Ferguson, Arts Correspondent at The Scotsman. I'm here with John Robb,
00:05who's the Project Manager for Capitol Theatre's big refurbishment job on King's Theatre in
00:11Edinburgh. John, it's just over two years since the King's Theatre was last opened for
00:16Edinburgh International Festival performances. What has been happening in this theatre since
00:21then?
00:22Well, an awful lot. We have just more or less completed the major part of the demolitions.
00:28It's taken us since the end of that festival in 22 to demolish most of the works in here.
00:33That's the removal of the old stairwells, so that we can put in the new lift shafts
00:38and the replacement stairwells, which will go up both sides. So we'll have two lifts
00:42on either side of the foyer. You can see just in the background, we've demolished the doors
00:47that now take you steps straight into the back of the stalls. And we've put the new
00:50fly tower on the building to allow us to operate in a more professional and modern 21st century
00:57operational way. And we have excavated out the cafe, new cafe area, and prepared the
01:03new creative engagement space up in the attic.
01:06So how much have you taken out, and then how much new stuff is going in?
01:10I believe up until a month and a half ago, we had taken over 2,000 tonnes of rubble out
01:16of the building. The old stairwells and plasterwork walls and things. It was over 2,000 tonnes.
01:23And have you pretty much finished all the demolition work inside the building?
01:26There's small bits that when we get to it, we'll have to take some steps out or a wall down.
01:30But the demolition contractors are now offsite. They've been on site since February 23.
01:39And that's them now offsite. So it's mostly people putting stuff, the new stairwells in.
01:46It's most contractors putting equipment into the building and not removing it.
01:52So what stage is the project at at the moment in terms of the timeline for when things might be back up and running again?
01:58I think the phraseologies were over 60%, 70% and close to, I'm probably being optimistic saying 70%,
02:05but we're well over 60% of the way through the job. And it's mostly to do with finishing off.
02:13We've got a client fit-out to do to put in all the lighting and sound equipment and things like that
02:17on top of finishing off the construction works.
02:21In terms of the difference that people will notice when they come to the Kings,
02:25what do you think the big differences will be in terms of the overall experience?
02:28I think from outside, you'll not notice an awful lot of difference.
02:31There'll be a new canopy and new signage and the windows will feel very different.
02:36But when you come in, it will seem extremely familiar to people.
02:39The big changes, most of the bigger interventions we've done are behind closed doors
02:47or behind doors where there's new stairwells and audience circulation lifts and the new facilities backstage.
02:55These are going to be the key elements.
02:57There'll be a new bar. All the bars are being refitted and made again into a 21st century bar.
03:02But the foyer, this area we're in here, will feel very similar.
03:06We're doing very little in here. All the woodwork here, the panelling, is covering up all the old marble
03:11and that will just be cleaned up and refreshed.
03:14So it will feel really familiar but just be a much, much better place to move around.
03:18Will it be able to do more productions here and also bigger productions than before?
03:25It's going to make things much easier for us to do.
03:28The loading facilities for us, for the door, the getting door, was always quite high
03:32and that was always quite a problem to load in.
03:34It's being lowered, so the stage is being, it was a rake stage before, it's being lowered down at the back
03:39and so it will be more level to come in off a truck bed, which means much speedier turnarounds for shows.
03:44With the new increased fly floor, that will mean that we can operate much quicker at rigging
03:50and putting in all the lighting and scenery will happen much, much quicker.
03:54And so, and with the flat floor, it means it's more suitable for dance.
03:58A lot of modern dance companies can't dance on rake stages.
04:01So it gives us the ability to tackle productions that have been out of our reach for the past, since it opened.
04:10When will people be able to come to see a show here again?
04:14As soon as we're finished, Ryan.
04:16When might that be?
04:18We are aiming for the spring, 2026, so that we get it back over the winter of 25
04:27and we've got our install to do and we'll be opening in spring 2026 with a very exciting new programme.
04:34Stay tuned on Scotsman.com