WHAT NEXT FOR HAYMARKET THEATRE?

‘SERIOUS AND STRONG’ INTEREST IN VENUE

NEARLY 20 organisations and individuals have come forward with ideas to reopen Leicester’s Haymarket Theatre.

The 900-seat venue closed for good in May when the consortium running it went into liquidation as a result of its closure during the coronavirus lockdown.

Since then, the theatre, off Belgrave Gate, has been locked up and unused.

However, Leicester City Council, which is part-way through a 99-year lease on the building, is trying to find another long-term use for the building in the hope of reducing the £180,000-a-year burden on council taxpayers through service charges and security costs.

A new council report has revealed six businesses have been interviewed by the council about potentially taking on the building.

There are also seven charities focused on theatre who have said they would be interested in using the 1970s building and another five organisations proposing musical performances.

The council has not identified any of the parties but it has summarised their proposals and described their interest as “strong and serious”. However, the authority has released a list of the potential uses of the venue if it takes any of the interested parties up on their offer. The list is:

Commercial mixed artform programming of a traditional nature covering music, theatre, musical theatre and dance;

A community hub oriented around theatre with a talent development orientation, with some commercial cultural and non-cultural activity to generate income;

Music and music production or broadcast facilities, with a talent development function;

Production and training skills for theatre and music.

The city council’s director of tourism culture and inward investment, Mike Dalzell, said: “Unfortunately the theatre had to close like other major venues and the operators didn’t have the resources to keep going so they surrendered the lease and the building is back in control of the council.”

He said the Arts Council was now supporting the efforts to find another use for it.

Mr Dalzell said: “Since the theatre shut there has been a huge amount of interest in it. Lots of organisations have said they were interested in running it or managing it. What we have is a work in progress, no decisions have been taken and all options are open to us. ”

He said consultants had been appointed to look at the various proposals.

City councillor Bill Shelton said he hoped the Haymarket could host music performances from acts not large enough to fill out De Montfort Hall. Councillor Su Barton said the building had much potential but would need to be fully used every day to make it viable.

Mr Dalzell said there was a good opportunity to support small-scale music in the Haymarket but also music, theatre, and dance.

He said it was possible the council, which spent £3 million revamping the building before it reopened, could have a role in the management of it. He added: “We need to create a business plan and financial cases that stacks up and we are very aware of the challenges around that.”

He said it was possible the council could invest more capital in the building but it was too early to know if that would be needed.

Mr Dalzell said it would be “another couple of months” until the council would be able to make a decision on the future of the building.