Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre to reopen in December with reconfigured auditorium

The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh has announced its plans to reopen in December, following the reconfiguring of their auditorium.

The stalls will be boarded over to allow for cabaret-style seating, suitable for socially distanced audiences. It is hoped that the circle will also be utilised as rehearsal space and for filming new material.

Producer Liz King said: "Over the next few months, we are not going to be able to make use of our theatre capacity, so it is a way of us bringing people in. If feels like it will be quite exciting to experience as an audience member."

Eight 15-minute productions, written by some of Scotland’s leading playwrights including Andy Cannon, Robert Softley Gale and Mara Menzies, will be filmed and streamed online during Advent, directed by Zinnie Harris and Wils Wilson.

Four stories will also be performed live onstage to a paying audience and then live streamed from 16-20 December.

The Lyceum is also planning to expand its pool of freelancers to work on their Christmas projects.

King said: "It is not a hugely inflated project budget, but we have tried to share it among people and put them together as a team.

"Christmas is the beginning of a journey and we are trying to expand the people that we work with and also to expand the skills in-house to make sure that we are in the best place to do that throughout the spring and take on the challenges heading our way."

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