The Stage

Redevelopment of Liverpool Everyman Theatre unveiled

Published Tuesday 1 June 2010 at 16:10 by Alistair Smith

Detailed proposals have been submitted to Liverpool City Council for the £28 million redevelopment of the city’s Everyman Theatre.

Proposals for the develpment of Liverpool Everyman theatre have been submitted by Haworth Tompkins Photo: Haworth Tompkins Ltd

The designs are by Haworth Tompkins, the firm which was also responsible for the Young Vic Theatre in London. The project is due to be completed in 2013, with work beginning on site early next year.

As well as re-imagining the 400-seat thrust stage auditorium and the venue’s bistro restaurant, the work will also see the creation of a youth and community space and new rehearsal rooms and workshops, and a ‘hub’ for writer development. The building will also have improved disabled access and be more energy-efficient than the current building, with natural ventilation system throughout the theatre.

The venue will be constructed of red brick and will feature a new frontage comprising 105 life-sized portraits of Liverpool people transferred onto cut aluminium shutters - according to the theatre this will create “a physical representation of the community to which the Everyman has always belonged”.

Artistic director Gemma Bodinetz said: “The new Everyman takes all that is most loved about the present theatre- a democratic thrust auditorium, a characterful subterranean bistro and reinvigorates them in the context of a theatre fit for future generations of audiences and artists. The addition of a dedicated space for our youth and outreach work, rehearsal room, writers’ hub, natural ventilation, full disabled access and 21st century technical facilities will mean that this much loved theatre will live on in a physical incarnation that fits its national reputation and idiosyncratic personality.”