News and Events
Belfast Lyric to reopen in May
13th Dec 2010
The announcement comes as Northern Ireland’s largest theatre company revealed a five-year sponsorship deal with the Northern Bank in exchange for naming rights to its main, 389-seat performance space.
Welcoming the bank’s support, artistic director Richard Croxford said the undisclosed six-figure sum was “particularly welcome at this time when cuts n public funding threaten to seriously diminish” the region’s cultural life.
The move follows a £1 million donation - the largest ever private arts sponsorship in Northern Ireland - by Dr Martin and Carmel Naughton in 2007, which funded construction of the venue’s 150-seat studio space, that will now be known as the Naughton Studio.
Work began on the new theatre, designed by Dublin-based architects O’Donnell & Tuomey, in March 2009. Details of the inaugural season will be revealed in January.
Next year will also mark the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Lyric Players - the company that built the original Lyric Theatre on the same River Lagan-side site in 1968.
Source: The Stage
