Venue now named the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Theatre

A FRENCH theatre dating back to the days of Napoleon III has been renamed for the man who paid to have it restored – Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Sheikh Khalifa, who is the ruler of Abu Dhabi, stepped in to rescue the site in the famed Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris, bestowing five million euros a year – and a name sure to make an impression on thea- tre-goers. The 400-seat Imperial Theatre had fallen into disrepair after lying all but empty for 150 years. Inspired by Queen Marie Antoinette’s theatre at Versailles, it was opened in 1857 by Emperor Napoleon III and hung with tapestries and a chandelier.

But it was only used a dozen times before Napoleon was deposed in 1870 and was a wreck by 1920, when the huge chandelier crashed to the ground. During the Second World War, it was used by the Nazis to entertain officers during the occupation of France. They abandoned it in 1941 because it was unsafe.

After seven years of restoration work, the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Theatre is ready to host plays and concerts again.

Speaking at the re-opening ceremony the palace’s president, Jean-Francois Hebert, said: ‘The trump card is that it has survived in this state after 150 years.’

Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, head of Abu Dhabi’s culture board, also spoke.

Sheikh Khalifa has sponsored a number of arts projects, including the planned Louvre Abu Dhabi, a foreign branch of the Paris museum.