The Stage

Dublin’s Gate set for €5.5m refurbishment

Published Friday 1 September 2006 at 11:20 by Michael Quinn

Dublin’s Gate Theatre is to embark on a €5.5 million refurbishment project to enlarge and modernise its backstage, access and administration facilities.

Announcing additional government funding of €1.5 million, €500,000 of which the Gate will receive in 2007, Arts Minister John O’Donoghue described the Gate as one of the world’s “most acclaimed” theatres.

Some €2.2 million for the project has already been received from government sources and another €300,000 from The Ireland Funds.

Launching a campaign to raise the remaining €1.5 million needed, Gate director Michael Colgan said the refurbishment would be the biggest challenge in the theatre’s history.

It is hoped the overhaul will solve recurring problems that have dogged the 18th-century, Grade One listed building since it was first adapted as a theatre in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir. Colgan has previously described the theatre’s facilities as “Dickensian”.

Architects Scott Tallon Walker, who have had a close working relationship with the theatre for many years, have been appointed to oversee the project.

A new three-storey extension will be built onto the theatre to provide rehearsal rooms, storage for archive material, a workshop area and office space, while a “theatre laboratory” is planned to encourage new and emerging creative talent.