A little under a year ago, disaster struck!

Rehearsals for the season opener, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, were well underway with just a couple of weeks to go until the show was on stage. The cast of The Flint Street Nativity had just started their music rehearsals and we were looking forward to inviting our members and friends into the theatre to see a demonstration of our new sound, lighting and projection equipment.

Then the heavens opened, a ridiculous amount of rain came down, and so did our roof.

Parts of the ceiling had to be taken down due to water ingress in the bar and there were several leaks in various parts of the theatre. Due to high voltage electrical circuits, we had to put the health and safety of cast, crew, members and audiences first and the decision was taken to close the theatre.

Three productions were postponed (and we are delighted that they will be on stage as part of our 2025-26 season) and the Management Committee worked tirelessly to get the medium-term remedial work carried out that allowed us to reopen earlier this year.

But this was not a permanent fix and replacing the roof has been our absolute priority. Not only did we need to do this to ensure the safety of our members and patrons, it is also a condition of our lease that we do so.

A new roof is not cheap, so in February we held a “Raising the Roof” fundraiser, organised and hosted by Graham Corbould. The evening was a huge success, with solo artists, duos and bands coming together to perform in front of a full house.

Fast forward a few months and we’re delighted to share that work has started on the roof replacement this week. If you’re coming along to our Wednesday Social, you’ll see that scaffolding is up, but we’re open to welcome you for a drink and a chat as usual.

Let’s hope we have more sunshine and fewer showers while the work is taking place. It should take around a week to complete and we’re really looking forward to our 50^th Anniversary Season and beyond!

A huge thank you to everybody who has supported the theatre over a very challenging year.