Edinburgh's 120-year-old King's Theatre reopens: 'I hope people will think we've done them proud'

Now, after a near-four year closure, Edinburgh’s Old Lady of Leven Street has officially reopened to the public following a £41 million refurbishment.

Fiona Gibson, chief executive of Capital Theatres, said it was an “absolute privilege” to open the doors to the public at the 120-year-old King’s Theatre in the city’s Tollcross district.

She said: “For 120 years the King's has been a place where Edinburgh comes together to laugh, to cry, to celebrate and to be inspired. Today we're opening the doors not just to a restored theatre, but to a building that truly lives up to its reputation of being the People’s Theatre.

“It is an absolute privilege to welcome audiences back and begin this exciting new chapter together."

The historic theatre ran a series of test events last week, trialling everything from backstage technical equipment to fire drills and toilet queues.

A new level stage replaces the original raked stage, creating greater flexibility for a wider range of genres including dance and contemporary circus. Together with a 4.5-metre extension to the fly tower and upgraded technical infrastructure, the improvements mean the King's can welcome more technically demanding touring productions, achieve shorter get-in and get-out times and provide a better working environment for performers, visiting companies and technical crews.

The first trial event, a show by comedian Jack Doherty scheduled last Tuesday for staff and construction workers, had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the theatre not being ready, however other, ticketed test events open to the public, and involving community theatre groups as well as a performance by MSP-turned-comedian Mhairi Black, went ahead as planned.

“I’m excited,” Ms Gibson said. “We’ve now done a couple of test events and seeing people’s faces coming in through the door and seeing them looking around and smiling and chatting about it all, it feels that hopefully we have created something that blends the heritage with the contemporary, which is what we really wanted to do. The smiling faces coming in the door will be a lasting memory.

“Everybody there, whether they were on the stage, or sitting in the auditorium, just had that great goodwill to be back in the building and to see it flourish again.”

More than 4,000 people have already signed up for sold-out tours of the building during the opening weekend.

“It’s remarkable,” said Ms Gibson. “It’s amazing that so many people want to see inside.”

The design of the foyer remains similar to the original King’s, but the “sweetie kiosks” have been removed to create more open, accessible spaces.

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“We wanted it to still feel comfortable and familiar, but enough change for people to think it was worth all the time and effort to get it to this place,” said Ms Gibson.

She believes the building is now one of the most accessible Edwardian theatres in the UK, with two lifts installed front of house and another back of house. An accessible dressing room has also been included as well as 10 wheelchair spaces in the auditorium, including in the dress circle for the first time.

“We wanted to make it inclusive, but the whole building was built to be exclusive,” she said, pointing to the original staircases which lead directly from the ground floor to the gods.

“People with tickets there were never able to mingle and now that has all gone and the whole place is democratic.”

The hospitality capacity has doubled, from 200 to 405 people, including the new King’s café downstairs, where framed photographs of celebrities who have treaded the King’s Theatre boards including Sean Connery and panto legend Rikki Fulton are displayed.

“Having the cafe and the creative engagement studio at the top of the building means it will be open by day,” said Ms Gibson. “We said we wanted to make it a community asset and that’s what we’re trying to live up to it being.”

The colour scheme of the design has been based around the blue of a peacock in the stained glass leading into the stalls.

“We made the decision to go with the stained glass. Once we’d made that decision, [the design] was actually really easy. Everything is linked to that, the yellows, the pinks, the blues, they all come from there and that’s why the contemporary and the heritage blends so well.”

The rails on the staircases on either side of the building have been painted a bright turquoise in a nod to the peacock blue.

“I remember choosing the colour for the staircases,” Ms Gibson said. “The metal work on it is a quite in-your-face blue. We were in the construction site in the auditorium, there just rubble everywhere and we’re making a decision on this colour. The builders had painted up a bit of a staircase to say, ‘what do you think, is this going to be the right colour?’ I was ‘like, yeah, that could work’, but you just don’t know.

“It was a bold choice, but I think it works.”

The heritage of the building has been a key focus for the design team. The original doors from the foyer kiosks have been used to house heritage displays upstairs, including the bottle found buried in a wall during the building project, which contained a piece of paper with 16 names of the original construction team written on it.

Meanwhile other items, including an old stage door sign have been retained and put on display.

”It’s been hard yards, but it’s been a real privilege, both for myself and for the team, because it was such a weight of responsibility for a building that is so loved by so many,” said Ms Gibson. “I hope when we do the official opening weekend that people will think we’ve done them proud.”