After 14 years in exile, The Court Theatre is back inside the Four Avenues, only a few blocks from its first home, in the Christchurch Arts Centre.

The opening of the $61 million building on the corner of Colombo and Gloucester streets marks a big step towards realising the dream of Te Whare Tapere, a precinct in the centre of the city that gives music, drama, dance and other performing arts a home.

The precinct, in the block bounded by Armagh, Gloucester, Colombo and New Regent streets, includes the Isaac Theatre Royal and The Piano: Centre for Music and the Arts. The hospo offerings of the area’s many restaurants and bars make for the perfect apéritif or nightcap to complement any show.

After the mild discomforts of The Shed, the theatre company’s temporary post-quake digs in Addington, and the less-than-ideal backstage spaces of its original Arts Centre home, The Court Theatre’s new building has a lot to love. That includes two theatres, the 377-seat Stewart Family Theatre and the smaller Wakefield Family Front Room, with 120 to 150 seats. 

The three levels of seating in the Stewart Family Theatre can be removed, giving flexibility to adjust the stage position for different types of performances.

The Wakefield Family Front Room will be used for performances such as children’s theatre and improvised comedy, including the forever favourite Scared Scriptless. Here’s hoping it can also fill the gap that the demise of the Court Two space at The Arts Centre provided for the kind of experimental works that will always struggle to fill a big theatre.

Other spaces will be used for wardrobe, costume and props construction and an education studio. There are also rehearsal and administration spaces, and a workshop for set construction.

The building was designed by Athfield Architects and UK-based architects Haworth Tompkins. 

A classic of Kiwi theatre, Bruce Mason’s ‘The End of the Golden Weather’, was the company’s first production in the Stewart Family Theatre. Christening the Wakefield Family Front Room was Victor Rodger’s unapologetically wicked ‘Black Faggot’. 

Plenty more coming in the year ahead as the team at The Court make the most of their new facility so make a date with some friends, book a show and remind yourself why we love the arts so much.

courttheatre.org.nz