Theatres across the UK have joined the dozens of schools forced to close or partly close due to concerns over crumbling concrete, reigniting fears over cultural institutions’ post-lockdown survival.
The Forum theatre in Stockport had to cancel all shows scheduled for the weekend and close its doors indefinitely due to the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). In line with updated government guidance, the theatre will remain closed until it gets the all-clear from a structural engineer.
Darren Stannage, the company manager of NK Theatre Arts, which is based at the Forum theatre, said: “We work with 200 children and young people every week, so to suddenly find we can’t operate at all, for providing facilities and services for them, to be in a position where in a moment’s notice – literally 24 hours ago – we had to announce the theatre was closed … it’s heartbreaking.”
Several other theatres in England found with Raac, including the Orchard theatre in Dartford, the YMCA theatre in Scarborough and the Royal and Derngate theatre in Northampton, have also suspended performances and shut their doors in response to the Department for Education’s guidance.
The latest advice recommends buildings that have confirmed or suspected Raac should be closed until “appropriate mitigations are in place”, even where they would have been deemed “non-critical” in the past.
Thousands of pupils in England are already facing disruption at the start of term after Raac, a lightweight but less durable concrete with a limited lifespan of about 30 years, was identified at 147 schools and education settings in England.
On Friday evening the Scottish government published its list of local authorities that have identified Raac in their schools, with 16 out of 32 council areas affected.
The Scottish education secretary, Jenny Gilruth, said: “Half of Scotland’s local authorities have identified Raac in schools. Cosla [the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities] has confirmed that safety is their central consideration and that there is robust guidance that is followed by every local authority to ensure that those buildings are safe to be in for pupils, staff and the public.”
Stannage said: “It was very difficult that suddenly, last week, the theatre was a safe environment and everything’s all OK. And then the following week, nothing has changed other than the guidance.”
Another venue, the Brunton theatre in East Lothian, Scotland, had to deal with “shock news” of the temporary closure of performance spaces in March after Raac was found in some of the building’s roof slabs.
The National Theatre in London has also said it is surveying “a small number” of areas where the concrete has been found. The theatre said early investigations suggested the material was safe and did not require immediate remedial works.
Stannage said many theatres were only just recovering from lockdowns, low turnout and increased operations costs since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. He said: “The longer it goes on, we have revenue problems, we have financial problems, we have funding issues and everyone’s going to be in that boat. You know, we’d like to say we’re just coming back from Covid.
“I feel it’s come out of the blue … so I do hope there’s some support that becomes available to theatres because I think culture is important to everyone.
“It is very much a community hub, so it’s literally like closing down the village, is how some people have described it. Fingers crossed that we can be open as quickly as possible and there’s least disruption as possible to other organisations that call this place home.”
