A BRAND new café bar and refurbished coffee shop will greet visitors when doors fully reopen at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre on May 17.
The city theatre will be return to business with April in Paris starring Joe Pasquale and Sarah Earnshaw at the start of a UK tour – 14 months after closing in March 2020.
And the grand-reopening will be just in time to welcome in the UK City of Culture, revealing new décor upstairs and downstairs, as part of the £5.5m 2020 Redevelopment Project.
Joanna Reid, The Belgrade’s executive director, said: “The whole team can’t wait to reopen on May 17 and to welcome shows and audiences back into our two auditoria as soon as possible.
“We are delighted that we are launching a tour of April in Paris on Monday 17 May and are continuing to work to secure more shows during May to August.
“We’re excited that we’ve been able to complete our 2020 Redevelopment in time for City of Culture despite the challenges posed by both the pandemic and Brexit. We hope to see you back at the Belgrade soon!”
Upstairs audiences will be able to enjoy the brand-new upstairs Café Bar Nineteen58, inspired and named after the theatre’s founding year decorated with vintage show posters and artwork from across the decades; while the downstairs Belgrade Café has also been newly refurbished.
From April 12, The Belgrade Café will be serving food to takeaway and eat outside the theatre on Belgrade Square.
The theatre’s digital offerings also continue ahead of May including Jabala and the Jinn, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Private Peaceful and the MT Festival UK which will stream between the end of March and the beginning of June.
Three diverse artists under the role of Co-Artistic Directors Corey Campbell, Balisha Karra and Justine Themen are delivering the Belgrade’s Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 programme together with members of the local community.
As well as directing the City of Culture opening event, Coventry Moves, Justine Themen has commissioned a brand-new digital version of Like There’s No Tomorrow (Weds May 19 – Sun June 13 2021), one of the first National Theatre Connections plays to be specifically commissioned for and created by young people. The Belgrade will also be hosting the region’s NT Connections Festival this summer, showcasing work by local youth theatres across the West Midlands.
Another cornerstone of the City of Culture programme, The Belgrade will co-present with Paines Plough a festival of new world-class plays and community-led activities in the world’s first plug-in, pop-up and play theatre Roundabout from Monday July 26 – Sunday August 8.
Balisha Karra will direct Coventry-based playwright Frankie Meredith’s May Queen. The other plays performed in repertory throughout the festival are Hungry by Chris Bush, Really Big and Really Loud by Phoebe Eclair-Powell, Black Love by Chinonyerem Odimba.
Filming has also begun on SeaView, an original digital series directed by Corey Campbell. Inspired by a true story, and lived experiences, SeaView is a supernatural drama centred on urban, working class communities in the Midlands.
Coun David Welsh from Coventry City Council, said: ““There has been so much work happening throughout the Covid outbreak to improve facilities at the Belgrade Theatre and I am really pleased that they can now take the first tentative steps by announcing what future productions they will be able to host.
“I want to thank all those involved for the hard work they have put into getting the Belgrade Theatre ready, and I wish the theatre every success.”
