The restoration of the nineteenth century Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris could provide a blueprint to restore Newcastle’s Victoria Theatre to a point where it can once again be used for public performance.
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Like the Victoria, the Parisian theatre been closed for 30 years and in need of major repairs when British director Peter Brook took it over in the mid-1970s.
“All they did there was arrest the decay, upgrade it, make it compliant but they didn’t do a deluxe renovation,” Century Venues executive director Greg Khoury said on Tuesday.
“We are thinking about doing that here, which is really about honouring the journey that this building has gone through.”
“Given that the [nearby] Civic Theatre is one of the best deluxe renovations in the country, we think this would provide a wonderful and vivid juxtaposition against the Civic’s restoration.”
About 80 people attended the launch of the University of Newcastle’s virtual recreation of the theatre as it was in 1891 on Tuesday night.
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It was the first time the theatre had been open to the public since it closed in 1966.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better response from the community,” Mr Khoury said.
“The virtual reality realisation that the university has done has given a credibility and focus to the theatre that you could only dream of.”
The theatre’s doors were opened to the public again on Wednesday and will also be open on Thursday.
Among those who dropped in for a walk down memory lane was John Carney who used to visit the theatre regularly to watch movies in the early 1960s.
“I’d come to the 11am session here at the Victoria. Then I’d duck out at 1.45 and go up to the Strand for the 2pm session,” Mr Carney said.
“When I first heard they were going to do this theatre up and saw a few photos it all came rushing back to me. It was the best thing I’d ever seen. It’s great that our old theatres are being restored and not being knocked down.”
University of Newcastle School of Creative Industries researcher Dr Gillian Arrighi has been researching live performance in the greater Hunter region from 1845.
Her research received a major boost in June with the university’s IT Innovation team offered to recreate the Victoria Theatre as a virtual reality project.
Researchers with expertise in theatre, natural history illustration, music and cultural history also worked together on this project.
“I’m absolutely delighted. My research project could only go so far because of its limited funding so for the innovation team to swoop in in late June and tell me they wanted to visualise the Victoria; I could never have dreamed that this project could go to this extent,” Dr Arrighi said.
“To bring the community in at this point is fantastic. So many of them have memories of when they were young, some of them even performed here.”
The IT Innovation team hope to make the virtual reality project accessible to the wider community over time.
Matthew Kelly
Matthew Kelly has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. He has been working as a general reporter at the Newcastle Herald since 2018. In recent years he has reported on subjects including environment, energy, water security, manufacturing and higher education. He has previously covered issues including the health and environmental impacts of uncovered coal wagons in the Hunter Valley, the pollution of legacy of former industrial sites and freedom of information issues.
Matthew Kelly has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. He has been working as a general reporter at the Newcastle Herald since 2018. In recent years he has reported on subjects including environment, energy, water security, manufacturing and higher education. He has previously covered issues including the health and environmental impacts of uncovered coal wagons in the Hunter Valley, the pollution of legacy of former industrial sites and freedom of information issues.
