Renovated Municipal Theatre will be biggest on the island

RENOVATION work on the Nicosia Municipal Theatre is nearing completion
Nicosia Mayor Michalakis Zampelas yesterday told the Cyprus Mail, “we will now have a modern, up-to-date and technologically advanced theatre, with 1,200 seats, making it the largest on the island. The contractor has said the theatre will be ready on October 29, although there may be a two-week delay on the upper floor seats”.
He went on to say that a request has been made to the National Theatre of Greece, who it is hoped will agree to perform on opening night.

The theatre has been closed for the past 18 months due to safety reasons, after fears were expressed over the structural integrity of the stage area. The Cyprus Theatre Organisation, described the theatre as “an unsuitable venue for plays due to the poor seating layout”.

Andreas Gabrielides, acting director of the Organisation, told the Cyprus Mail earlier this year: “The Nicosia Municipal Theatre has been used over the years as there has been no other alternative. No other suitable venues were available to stage plays, so we had to make do with it.”

The theatre has encountered problems from the very beginning. Building started in 1958 but was not completed due to money running out. The first performance took place on March 25, 1967 and was Countess Valerena, by Gregory Xenopoulos.

But the acoustics were so bad that actors’ words would be drowned out whenever there was heavy rain outside. The problem was blamed on the building’s roof, which was made out of corrugated iron.

The renovations include a new roof, better acoustics, modernised back-stage facilities, a separate area for the orchestra and changes to the foyer.

When the renovation work, which is believed to have cost £3 million, began back in February, Mayor Zampelas said that, “there is a need for the theatre to be renovated as it will be a place that will be able to accommodate most cultural events.”

Strovolos Theatre and the Melina Melcuri Cultural Centre have been used as venues during the 18 months of inactivity at the Municipal Theatre.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.