The opening of Sunderland’s new auditorium, The Fire Station, which will accommodate 550 people seated and up to 800 standing, is announced as tickets go on sale on 24 September for its first season which opens on 10 December.
The Fire Station, which is next to Sunderland Empire, is operated by Sunderland Culture on behalf of Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture (MAC) Trust. The £18m venue's opening programme will run from December to June 2022 and features more than 40 artists and performers, with more to be announced soon.
The first season features a wide range of music from Kathryn Tickell to Mica Paris via candlelit Christmas concert from the Royal Northern Sinfonia, comedians such as Gary Delaney, plus, of course, theatre and dance.
The first play to be performed at the Fire Station will be Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the latest production from Durham-based Elysium Theatre Company. It will run for one night only on Thursday 17 February.
Dance performances include The Monocle (19 February), a new piece by Rendez-Vous dance inspired by the secretly notorious 1930s Parisian lesbian club Le Monocle, Speakeasy (8 April), a reinterpretation of the classic tale of Faust, from Southpaw Dance Company performed with a community cast featuring members of local swing dancing communities, and Human (14 May) from Extraordinary Bodies, a radical circus performance company, a poetic record of our time based on real-life stories from the company and performers told through circus, music and film.
Tickets for most performances begin at £11 and there is full information, along with details of how to book, on the Fire Station web site.