The show must go on

Although plans were in place to carry out a complete refurbishment of the Orchard Theatre following the 2024/2025 panto season, these were abruptly changed in September 2023. 

In Summer 2023, the alarm was raised nationally about the dangers of RAAC concrete. Dartford Borough Council carried out an urgent inspection of the Orchard Theatre and discovered it was present in the roof of the auditorium. As a result, the building was closed immediately. 

This meant the theatre faced cancellations of all shows booked indefinitely, including the Christmas panto.

Closing the theatre meant permanent staff were facing redundancies, while the company risked losing volunteers who had worked with them for around 25 years. 

There was also potential impact on local businesses - it’s estimated that the theatre contributes £4.5m to the local economy. Closing would have affected businesses that have contracts with the theatre and local businesses that relied on theatre goers for trade. 

As well as these issues, closing would have left the community in Dartford without a theatre for the duration of the repair works. 

Dartford Borough Council and Trafalgar Theatres were keen to find a way to keep theatre operating in Dartford, and in particular to have an alternative in place in time for the 2023 pantomime season, beginning in December.

This meant finding a new venue in a very short space of time, so an innovative solution was needed. 

A temporary building was agreed to be the most suitable option and GL events were chosen to deliver the entire theatre, including front of house, auditorium, stage and back of house, power and facilities on waste ground near the existing building. 

To have a new theatre ready for opening night of the panto, the team had just six weeks to complete the project, including design, logistics, planning, building control and construction. 

The location of the site on brownfield land meant it had to be cleared before work could begin. The team also needed to manage ground conditions that made it more difficult to construct the buildings. 

The site is in a residential area, so noise had to be kept to a minimum, not just during the construction but solutions needed to be considered as part of the planning that would keep disturbances from performances to a minimum too. 

The new theatre also had to meet certain specifications, it needed to fit an audience of over 1000 and provide the same experience for the audience as they would have in the usual theatre. 

The stage needed to meet the differing requirements of all future productions. Back of house had to be large enough to house the local dance schools and summer youth projects as well as the dressing rooms, wardrobe, work and storage areas that would be suitable for the wide variety of productions the theatre would be hosting. 

As the building was onsite for more than 28 days, planning and safety regulations for permanent buildings needed to be applied and it needed to be able to withstand the winter weather. 

By working collaboratively with all stakeholders and partners across the project, GL events were able to deliver a fully functioning temporary theatre that met the needs of Dartford Council, Trafalgar Theatres and the audience. 

Working with our sister companies, Aganto and Flow Energy Solutions, we were able to deliver a turnkey solution to Dartford Borough Council and Trafalgar Theatres.

We provided all aspects of a permanent theatre building including the auditorium with seating for over 1000, a bar and concession area, toilets, as well as larger than average back of house space for dressing rooms, wardrobe and props department, box office and orchestra. 

The stage dimensions and floor loading were designed and constructed to accommodate any level two touring production.

All parties involved in this project were keen to find ways to quickly deal with any problems that arose throughout the build, finding innovative ways to meet challenges. As a result, the new theatre was ready for opening night of “Beauty and the Beast” and the show could go on!