Birmingham REP’s two-and-a-half-year refurbishment has reached a major milestone, with contractors handing back control of the building to the theatre.
The REP’s team will now oversee the internal fit-out of fixtures and fittings to get the theatre ready for performances.
Relocating the company back into the building will take place from the end of May until July.
Additional work is also to be undertaken in areas of the theatre that have been unaffected by the joint development with the Library of Birmingham.
The REP reopens to the public on Tuesday 3 September with a new 300-seat studio theatre—created through the partnership with the Library of Birmingham.
The building’s original façade has been restored. Public and backstage facilities have been improved and there are new bars and restaurants, dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, set-construction workshops and administration offices.
Roxana Silbert was appointed as the REP’s artistic director while the theatre was closed. She says the move is an exciting occasion.
“Being without a theatre while the REP has been refurbished has been a rejuvenating and energising time for the company.
“We’ve been able to make theatre all over the region: from disused factories to car parks, army bases to restaurants.
“We’ve forged new and deeper artistic partnerships with artists, companies, schools and libraries across the region in a cornucopia of wide-reaching site-specific work, and we’re thrilled at the generosity of our audiences joining in and embracing our peripatetic existence.
“It’s been a challenge for the REP’s team to maintain a full programme of work while being involved in a major capital project but it’s allowed us to re-examine how and why we make work and forge a more intimate relationship with our audiences.
“I’m excited at applying those new-found principles as we move back into the theatre and to be making final preparations to welcome audiences back home.”
Full details of the REP’s reopening season can be found at birmingham-rep.co.uk.