A new theatre is to open in King’s Cross, central London, in an office building that will be occupied by Facebook. Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr, who ran the National Theatre for 12 years, announced on Wednesday that the new adaptable auditorium would be based on their purpose-built Bridge theatre, which opened in 2017.
The as yet unnamed new theatre will have 600 seats and, like the 900-seat Bridge, it is designed by the Stirling prize-winning Haworth Tompkins architects and engineers Tait to be as flexible as possible. Its programme will similarly comprise new writing with revivals of classic plays. The Bridge’s productions have included a promenade version of Julius Caesar, directed by Hytner, which invited 400 of the audience members to stand and form a throng around the actors.
In a statement, Hytner and Starr said: “We’ve been delighted with the welcome the Bridge has received, and with the intimacy, comfort and adaptability of Haworth Tompkins and Tait’s auditorium. We’re looking forward to joining the vibrant King’s Cross neighbourhood.”
The new theatre is a joint venture between Hytner and Starr’s London Theatre Company and King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership. The theatre will be housed in a building named P2 that is currently under construction, one of three buildings set to house Facebook. It will have a fifth-floor wraparound terrace and ground-floor retail space. The theatre is planned to open for winter 2021.
King’s Cross already has the Platform theatre, in a building shared with Central Saint Martins art school. Between 2014 and 2016 the area was also home to a pop-up theatre situated behind King’s Cross station which staged the Donmar’s Shakespeare Trilogy, David Bowie’s Lazarus and a production of The Railway Children making use of real train track and a steam train.
The Bridge’s next production is a promenade version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Hytner and starring Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie as Titania.
