Behind the scenes – ADC

The theatre called @sohoplace sits within the wider Soho Place development designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris above the Crossrail station at Tottenham Court Road. The lower part of this building contains five storeys of theatre – including an auditorium, rehearsal studio, crush bars, green room, back-of-house facilities, technical gallery, offices, rehearsal room and club – above a publicly accessible ground floor containing a restaurant and bar. AHMM teamed up with HaworthTompkins, theatre consultant Charcoalblue and acoustician Arup to design the 600-seat auditorium.

Keenly aware that a theatre represented a marked departure from their areas of expertise, Derwent joined forces with celebrated producer and theatre owner Nica Burns, whose Nimax group already co-owned six major theatres including the Vaudeville, the Palace and the Apollo. The unlikely pairing of superstar impresario and corporate developer was not without its complications. As Burns puts it: ‘We had to learn to speak each other’s language. Theatre people talk about dreaming. Developers don’t tend to talk in dreams’

Burns explains what it takes to create a building, and a performance, that transports its audience to another world, while Williams reflects on the deal that made @sohoplace a reality.

What shape is London’s theatre world in post pandemic? 

Nica Burns Covid was traumatic for the whole country and was disastrous for the theatre community.  As everyone knows, we were closed down completely.

I opened all six of my theatres as soon as I could and it was fantastic to see so many people want to come back to theatre and a shared live experience. London theatre has recovered well post-Covid but it has been much harder in the regional theatres. I believe London is the greatest theatre capital in the world, offering outstanding productions with a wide choice from musicals, dramas and popular entertainment; something for absolutely everyone’s taste.

While the future of British theatre looks good, the economic damage was extensive and there is great concern in the subsidised sector regarding public funding: London theatre has been told that its funding will be decreased to increase funding to the regions. Despite all that, I am confident about the future because we have the talent.

How have audiences reacted to @Sohoplace?

Nica Burns We have built a brand new, ultra-modern West End theatre where the beauty lies in emphasising its architectural form. The curve of our lovely, lit white marble staircases, the starry skies in the ceilings and the use of high quality materials.  It is sleek, modern and memorable in a different visual way. It should be different and it is. Our first audiences through the doors absolutely love the feel and look of the entire building and the calm intimate feel of the auditorium.

The idea of building a new modern theatre with its very high benchmark needs on top of three tube lines was an act of great faith. Derwent assembled the finest team to deliver the impossible: an auditorium with no vibrations and with silence. In the hurly burly of our intensely populated and noisy city, silence is an almost unachievable quality. Sitting in the auditorium, with eyes closed, that is what you can hear. It’s an incredible achievement and it took a huge team to make the magic.

Are there tensions between running a theatre and running a public/civic space?

Nica Burns We are looking forward to welcoming people outside performance times for a cocktail or a meal. We would like to grow, so we buzz on the ground floor all day while humming with creative activity on the theatre floors. The ground floor has a distinctive, warm atmosphere and should be shared with the local community and passers-by who are intrigued. For some, it might be the start of their first journey to see a production!

The building’s theatricality and glamour is a riposte to the perceived wisdom that modern architecture is industrial, matter-of-fact and low key. Did you – or anyone else – ever doubt that the two could go hand-in-hand?

Nica Burns No. We wanted the same thing. We all set out to collaborate and were very ambitious for the project. None of us had ever built a theatre. A property giant and a top architect embraced the challenge that we weren’t just building a box, we were building a magic box. A building that would be noticed in the streetscape and photographed by the public. A building that would be distinctive, enticing people to enjoy it from the outside and want to come inside. All the choices in the building have a story behind them, an idea – and it shows in the architecture and the interiors.

What did you learn from your long collaboration with Derwent and the design team – and what did they learn from you?

Nica Burns It took time for us to understand each other, we inhabit different worlds. Derwent and the design team learned that, while theatre people have huge imaginations, we are innately practical.  Theatre is an extremely disciplined industry: shows are turned around very quickly with everything planned to the minute and the millimetre.  The show must go up on time. The production plans are extremely detailed We push and invent technology for productions all the time and have huge specialist teams.  However great our passion, it is always underpinned by discipline.  We are very cost conscious and don’t like to waste a penny as there is never enough.

I learnt just how complicated and challenging it is to design and build a £300m regeneration project on a complex Crossrail site. You need very detailed overall management, huge skill and precision on the infrastructure and precise communication on a large scale.  We learnt so much from them. As the project developed, our two teams became one and the result is our fantastic building with a great auditorium from our specialist theatre team.  We all learned to utterly respect each other’s skills and contribution. Our theatre is a one-off and everyone involved can be proud to tell their friends, family and grandchildren, I helped build this.

The other Crossrail sites seem to be more monocultural commercial developments. Can you envisage a city-wide policy of interlinked cultural programming and infrastructure provision?

Paul Williams It wouldn’t work for every site. Building above railways is complex and expensive, and theatres are not straightforward. We had a site that was uniquely positioned to tap into London’s world-class theatre scene, but that wasn’t enough to guarantee we would be able to build a theatre that was a success. It isn’t easy, and it isn’t our world, which is why we partnered with Nica.

We would have built a theatre without Nica, but we would have built the wrong theatre. The day we were introduced to Nica was a very lucky day.

Auditorium team’s account

The @sohoplace auditorium marks a new departure for contemporary performance space. Responding to impresario Nica Burns’ vision for a truly adaptable, intimate 600 seat West End auditorium, HaworthTompkins, Charcoalblue, Arup and Tait have designed an intense, sumptuous room with multiple possibilities for artists and audiences to explore. In short, we were looking to create a new model of adaptable West End auditorium.

Balcony fronts in natural timber lend the space warmth and provide robustness; they are acoustically modelled to both scatter sound sideways and reflect sound downwards back to the audience. With dimmable warm LED up-lighting, the balcony front panels create a rich warm enveloping embrace, which fades to darkness when the house lights drop off and the show begins.

To reformat the room, there is an innovative system of swing-out arms and drop-in balcony modules. The arms fold flat against the walls when not deployed in the various stage formats.

Roger Watts, HaworthTompkins and Alex Wardle, Charcoalblue