Puttin' on the Citz: Citizens Theatre reopens

After recently kicking off its opening week, the Glasgow's Citizens Theatre has returned home to its newly refurbished building. With a focus on making the venue more accessible, the refurbishment includes new facilities and studios, as well as restored architectural elements like the building's six iconic statues. Following the COVID-19 pandemic and escalating costs, the building has finally re-opened its doors to the public seven years after it was first closed for renovation.

The building, which dates back to 1878, has housed the Citizens Theatre since 1945. When the building first closed in 2018, the renovation was expected to take three years and cost £20 million. Arts Professional reports that, six months back, the Scottish Government contributed an additional £8 million to finish the project, bringing the total cost to nearly double the original budget. It's a steep price tag at a time when arts funding is constantly being pulled out from under us, and all eyes are on the Citizens Theatre to see how the company makes use of its dearly bought facility. 

In the past, Artistic Director Dominic Hill has expressed that the Citizens Theatre can function as a space for co-productions, which are a financial necessity at the moment. Over the next few years, we will see the Citizens Theatre work with numerous big, Scottish theatres to maximise their reach. Unstable funding in the arts means that it's difficult for organisations to plan for the future – by re-opening this building, the Citizens Theatre is working to create one. 

Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. Photo: Mark Liddell

With principal funding from Creative Scotland and Glasgow City Council, the Citizens Theatre represents a material investment on behalf of the Gorbals and its artistic community.  The theatre offers £5 tickets for locals, as well as other programmes to make the theatre more accessible for its neighbours, continuing in its mission to engage with the historically deprived community around it. Some coverage of the building bears shades of a gentrifying tone, with The Guardian calling the area 'once notorious Gorbals', praising the 'regeneration' the area has undergone over the past few years.

After re-opening last month with a local parade and series of events, the theatre seems committed to showing the community a return on their engagement. Until 5 September, the Citizens Theatre will be hosting their Homecoming Festival, featuring tours, workshops and activities for children, amongst other things. The tours are sold out for now – further proof of high demand – but the website promises that a full programme of tours will launch later this year. 

The Citizens Theatre's first production back will be Small Acts of Love, based on the true story of the Pan Am 103 bombing in 1988. With a script by playwright Frances Poet and original songs by Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue, the story chronicles the acts of kindness that passed between those affected by the disaster. The show itself is enormous – there are fourteen cast members and a live band. The rest of the theatre's first season sports other crowd pleasers. Saint Joan, running in February 2026, is a multi-media adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's classic play about Joan of Arc. The Citizens Theatre will also stage Beckett's Waiting for Godot next year. This lineup – speckled by phrases about the power of community and friendship and the difficulty of not being a man – is safe but dependable. 

Local families can look forward to the return of the Citz Christmas show, which this year will be Beauty and the Beast. There's little known about the production at present, but it is set to be written by Lewis Hetherington and directed by Hill. The smaller Studio Theatre will host more intimate, experimental projects, like Wonder Fools' Fringe First-winning Òran and Vox Motus' Flight. Looking through the upcoming programme, these shows strike me as the kinds of things you stage if you want – and need – to get people to visit again and again. I am eager to see how the Citizens Theatre joins ongoing movements in Scotland to make the theatre industry more accessible. In regaining a theatre of this size, the Scottish theatre scene regrows by that much.