I went to the new Citizens Theatre – here's what I found

On a slighter more serious note, we’ve all been wondering what the new Citz would offer. As we know, the theatre space in Glasgow’s Gorbals, which opened in 1878, has undergone several transformations over the years, from music hall theatre to James Bridie school of drama in 1950. But what do we want from it in 2025? We certainly expect so much more than a performance space; a building which offers up a world we can feel part of a venue which not only entertains us, but challenges us, enthrals . . .a foyer which upon entering sends a frisson of expectation down our spine?

So, what is this new reality? On coming close, the new building not only declares itself, it shouts out loud across the Gorbals rooftops. The neon signage is Broadway bold and appears on the front, the side and the back.  Get closer and you see the famous statues of Burns, Shakespeare and the four goddesses, which have welcomed audiences for decades, are back up on the roof.  Walk into the foyer and it is modernity at its simplest, which makes it all the more stunning, a vast space of polished wooden floors and visible, bare lighting wires hanging down - but without feeling empty and cold. It’s complex - yet welcoming. It has a long wide bar and the eye catches catch help but catch designer Bertie Crewe’s Golden Elephants back in position, still looking  like a prop from Moulin Rouge. We could easily be in New York or in Sohoplace.

Read more:

• New Citizens Theatre hosts its first new show: this is what to expect
• Former artistic director of Glasgow's Citizens Theatre dies
• Here's my top 10 theatre shows to see in Scotland as the Citz reopens
• After an almost complete rebuild, the Citizens Theatre opens its doors

We’re read that the building has been crafter with sustainables, (less reliance upon concrete) and there are deep pink staircases run which all the way up to the heavens, and lots of stone carved brick. There’s a smile on realising this was once a rundown building that tested audiences’ physical limits of endurance, freezing cold in winter, unbearably hot in summer. Rainwater leaked onto the stage, sometimes onto the heads of actors, and the toilets were best ignored if possible.

But you can’t help wondering what former artistic director Giles Havergal, (who passed away on the week of the new opening) would think of this theatre he rescued from almost certain collapse, a space which in 1970 lacked purpose and a point. The Citizens had lost its way since the heady adventurous days of the Forties and Fifties, the days of subversive, clever directors such as Tryone Guthre, of actors such as Stanley Baxter and Duncan Macrae. Havergal came into the building however and transformed the Citizens’ Theatre back into the building ‘which once bottled Glasgow’s wild energy.’ It may have been located in a postcode beset by criminality, violence and social deprivation, but Giles Havergal determined to offer the sharpest contrast to the razor gangs of the Seventies, by creating cutting edge theatre.

Giles Havergal(Image: Paul Stuart)

He began with a 1970 Hamlet starring the legend that is David Hayman, featuring ‘black satin, nudity and homosexual undertones.’ And Gertrude and Ophelia in drag. Havergal determined to create a unique fusion of class, culture and sensibility which would be recognised throughout the world. “I’m like the madam of a brothel,” he declared with a wide grin. “I have my girls on one hand and my clients on the other, and the delicate art is bringing them together.”

It set the tone, later described by Rupert Everett, who joined in 1978. “The company was being run by three mavericks, rather highbrow, queens in a slum in Glasgow, (Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse, and Robert David MacDonald) putting on plays that were far-fetched and demanding. And because they didn’t patronise their audience, everyone adored it. It was one of the most extraordinary cultural events in the British postwar scene, frankly.”

So, would the bold, maverick Havergal love the new space? You can imagine he’ll be smiling down from the gods right now declaring; “Love the pink staircases, darling.” But he’d be adding more. He’ll be saying that the architects knew implicitly that the new Citz acknowledges that theatre begins before the lights dim. It starts with seeing who else is in the building, where they’re sitting, what they’re drinking. This was always the spirit of the Citz, particularly in its bohemian 1970s heyday. Now it’s built into the architecture.

And yes, Havergal would also be so glad they’ve kept the Elephants, so haughty, regal and delightfully solipsistic. You sense he’d love the exposed Victorian brick, which fits with the tone of the Citz productions; sometimes earthy, bare and bold. Like the original theatre production of Trainspotting.

As for the auditorium, which played home to the likes of Glenda Jackson, Gary Oldman and Edith McArthur, it hasn’t really changed at all. The sightlines are improved, and the velvet seating still suggests opulence, although the technical world behind the stage is highly inventive. (The sound however needs to be fine tuned).

The horseshoe balconies remain, but the paintwork on the proscenium arch is still chipped and that’s a great metaphor for the reformed Citz. It reminds there is still a little work to be done in the people’s theatre. And like the Gorbals itself it’s a mix of new and old, and will continue to evolve, in terms of style content. And because Glasgow has always craved new, and craved old, and something a little different, there will always be a little work needing done.

What would Giles Havergal have thought of the first production in the rebuilt £40m space? Surely, he would have agreed that Small Acts of Love, which told of the 1987 Lockerbie disaster, was touching and tender, in both the words by Frances Poet and music by Ricky Ross. But most importantly, this production, and the Citz in itself, continues to remind us – and we do need reminding now on a daily basis - that there are people in our world who still deeply care.