400,000 visitors help theatres boost income

400,000 visitors help theatres boost income

Edinburgh's Festival City Theatres Trust, which manages the King's and Festival Theatres, has announced a dramatic increase in its box office and activity in the financial year to March 31.

With the Festival Theatre, created from the old Empire Theatre building to stage opera, dance and large scale shows, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and the refurbished King's sporting an admired new dome artwork by writer and artist John Byrne, pictured, the venues have welcomed more than 400,000 visitors.

Box office income shows a year-on-year increase of 65 per cent, with ticket sales and performances both up 25 per cent.

l edtheatres.com

Byrne double bill at the Tron

John Byrne is also to the fore in the new season announced by Glasgow's Tron Theatre.

Byrne, whose previous Chekhov adaptations have included The Cherry Orchard and a recently-revived take on Uncle Vanya, has now written his own version of The Three Sisters, relocating the action from 19th century Russia to rural Argyll in the 1960s.

Jessica Hardwick, Muireann Kelly, and Sally Reid play the titular siblings and Sylvester McCoy, Joanthan Watson, and Martin McCormick are also in the cast.

Byrne will also design the production, which runs from October 1 to 18 in the Tron's main house.

It will be followed in the theatre's Changing House upstairs space by a revival of Byrne's Colquhoun And MacBryde, about the hedonistic lifestyle of two Scottish painters.

The two Roberts will be played by Scots actors Steven Clyde and Andy Clarke on this new two-hander version of the play, presented in association with Glasgay!

l tron.co.uk