{"id":365717,"date":"2025-08-22T22:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365717\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T22:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:22:14","slug":"glasgows-citizens-theatre-to-reopen-after-7-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365717\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow&#8217;s Citizens Theatre to reopen after 7 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6ed62230-7f6f-11f0-8869-6fe4e67d37a3.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Eoin Carey A photo of the outside of the theatre. The name of the theatre is written in red neon. Above that are the six statues which have been restored.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Eoin Carey<\/p>\n<p>The Citizens Theatre has been closed for seven years<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Glasgow&#8217;s Citizens Theatre is to reopen this weekend after a seven-year revamp, which was hit by Covid and skyrocketing costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The theatre, in the city&#8217;s Gorbals area, closed in June 2018 for a refurbishment which was planned to take three years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The original cost was estimated at \u00a320m but it could end up costing almost double that amount.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A community-led parade will officially mark the reopening on Saturday, along with a series of events and behind-the-scenes tours over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/d9d36560-7f70-11f0-8869-6fe4e67d37a3.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Mark Liddell A night time photo of the exterior of the building when they were testing the new neon lighting.&#10;\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Mark Liddell<\/p>\n<p>The theatre closed in 2018 for a refurbishment which was originally planned to take three years<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The Citizens Theatre has been a landmark in the Gorbals area of Glasgow since 1945, but the building itself &#8211; which is leased from Glasgow City Council &#8211; dates back to 1878.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The restoration has maintained the theatre&#8217;s historic auditorium and its Victorian stage equipment, the oldest surviving in the UK, and wrapped it in a brand-new three-storey building.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The revamp includes a new foyer, improved accessibility, a new bar area and social spaces, with enhanced backstage facilities for performers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/15ecae30-7f71-11f0-8869-6fe4e67d37a3.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Eoin Carey A photo of the auditorium with red plush seats and gold plasterwork\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Eoin Carey<\/p>\n<p>The theatre&#8217;s historic auditorium has been maintained<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/b5fb22b0-7f6e-11f0-83cc-c5da98c419b8.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Eoin Carey A photo of the new foyer, dominated by a pink staircase\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Eoin Carey<\/p>\n<p>The revamp includes a new foyer<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ba99e6e0-7f68-11f0-aed6-a9b9ead85975.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Photo of the six statues\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Six statues have been returned to the roof of the building<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/94e1e6b0-7f71-11f0-8844-df46f3a0217b.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Getty Images Palace Bingo Hall - August 1968. Gorbals Street Glasgow with Citizens Theatre next door. (Photo by Mirrorpix via Getty Images)\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The statues stood on top of the shared facade between and Citizen and Palace Theatres until 1977<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">They once stood on the roof of a shared fa\u00e7ade between the Citizen and Palace Theatres.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The figures survived a fire in 1973 but the building was condemned in 1977 and they were removed and placed in storage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">By the time the statues were brought to the foyer of the Citizens Theatre in 1989, signs of age were already visible and one of the muses &#8211; Thalia &#8211; was missing the mask she typically holds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">After a lengthy and painstaking restoration, they have returned to the building&#8217;s roof.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eoin Carey The Citizens Theatre has been closed for seven years Glasgow&#8217;s Citizens Theatre is to reopen this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-365717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115074757793663423","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}