Citizens Theatre
Giles Havergal died on the same day as the reopening of the Citizens Theatre, where he was artistic director
The actor and former artistic director of the Citizens Theatre Giles Havergal has died aged 87.
Mr Havergal presided over the Glasgow venue from 1969 to 2003 – described as one of the most celebrated periods in the theatre’s history.
He died on Saturday, the same day the Citizens reopened following a seven-year closure.
The theatre, in the city’s Gorbals area, closed in June 2018 for a refurbishment which was planned to take three years.
Mr Havergal’s productions included an all-male Hamlet starring David Hayman.
He was responsible for bringing Glenda Jackson, Pierce Brosnan and Rupert Everett to the stage in Glasgow.
Staff said that he, alongside his co-directors Robert David MacDonald and Philip Prowse, ensured the venue became a “European creative powerhouse”.
The theatre’s current artistic director Dominic Hill said he recently spoke with Mr Havergal, who told him he was looking forward to the venue’s first show Small Acts of Love.
The production is about the town of Lockerbie’s response to the Pan Am disaster.
Having first visited the Citizens in 1953, Mr Havergal said it would be the “next step in a long journey for me”.
Mr Hill said: “He always took great interest in how the theatre was faring and the work we were presenting, even after leaving Glasgow.
“I hugely enjoyed our chats over dinner and lapped up his stories as well as his immense wisdom and knowledge.
“I am sorry that he will never see the newly restored theatre but his legacy is hard-wired into the fabric of the building and his name will always be associated with it.”
Mark Liddell
The theatre closed in 2018 for a refurbishment which was originally planned to take three years
Six statues have been returned to the roof of the building
Eoin Carey
The theatre’s historic auditorium has been maintained
A community-led parade marked the reopening of the Citizens, a landmark in the Gorbals area since 1945.
The building itself – which is leased from Glasgow City Council – dates back to 1878 and has one of the oldest surviving auditoriums in the UK, with Victorian stage equipment.
The auditorium has been maintained, as have the theatre’s six statues – which sat atop the roof and were a fixture of the city’s skyline for a century.
They are of the four Greek muses as well as William Shakespeare and Robert Burns.
The original cost of the revamp was estimated at £20m but it could end up costing almost double that amount.
Mark Rylance was just one of the actors given their first break by Giles Havergal, who was artistic director of the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow for more than three decades.
When he was appointed in 1969, the Gorbals theatre was in a bit of a mess with previous directors clashing with a conservative board.
But Havergal, along with fellow directors Robert David MacDonald and Philip Prowse, refused to play it safe.
Their debut show was an all-male Hamlet, with both cast and play stripped back to basics.
The critics hated it but audiences flocked to the theatre, especially when they introduced cut price tickets for those who could least afford it.
He left Scotland – and the theatre – in 2003.