How You See Our Future and Other Stories

It takes a special kind of theatre to be a theatre that’s not a theatre.

That’s how we feel anyway, and our recent public survey confirms that we’re not alone.

Fast approaching 100 years since pencil first hit paper to design our auditorium, there is a wide array of reasons why this semi-derelict old girl is so well-loved, according to our detective work. (To see some of our findings as an infographic instead, click here.)

"I performed there many times in the 70s and 80s in G and S operas. Met my wife in the process. Need I say more?"

From amateur dramatics, wedding photos on our staircase, raucous sing-along screenings, fairs, The Jesus and Mary Chain to Yehudi Menuhin, we loved reading your memories of the space through the decades. Someone even listed the toilets amongst their favourite things and another respondent highlighted our programmer Callum’s lush hair…

But that’s the charm of surveys. Whilst we can’t be everything to everyone, everyone is everything to us and the fact that each of you find such different reasons to want Leith Theatre to succeed is nothing short of inspiring.

"One night you can be watching an international superstar perform and the next weekend you can take your granny to watch Singin' in the Rain."

Where would we be without spaces like these in our cities?

The survey results brought surprises too, like the fact that 55% of you didn’t know that the theatre was a gift to the people of Leith from the City of Edinburgh. The same percentage didn’t know that AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Status Quo all played here in the 1970s. A higher percentage (67%) did know, however, that we were closed from the 1980s until the Trust took over in 2016.

Then there are the percentages that really get us going: 93% of you would be interested in more live performances and concerts, with 22% of you interested in performing yourselves at the theatre. 94% of you think that the theatre would be good for the music scene in Edinburgh, the same percentage that feel it would be good for the local economy. We don’t need to tell you that this is music to our ears (but we just did anyway) and we will have music for your ears again before too long. (Yeah, we went there too.)

“A fantastic mid-size venue which Edinburgh really lacks... A perfect venue for touring bands who often skip an Edinburgh date altogether."

It seems that not only to us but to masses of you, Leith Theatre is already a world-class music venue and a home for live performance of all kinds in Scotland. However, the public survey also revealed that 54% of you didn’t know that we aren’t currently watertight or weatherproof, though the words “shabby chic” and “run down” etc. were used by many.

Though the vast majority of you expressed your concern and desire for the theatre to be renovated, another interesting discovery was the fear that many of you hold that we will over-renovate. In fact, the words ‘soul’, ‘character’ and ‘atmosphere’ were all typed out countless times. And we hear you. In the new twenties, it has never been more important to retrofit buildings like Leith Theatre, keeping the soul of the venue but greening and future-proofing it for generations to come, as well as for us, now (let’s face it, we’re not that selfless).

We are an “intimate”, “spacious”, "decaying", “glamorous”, “easy to find” “hidden gem”. Now that’s a collection of contradictions whose value we can't put a percentage on, don’t you think?

You never know, we might even help you meet your future spouse.