Theatre debate stresses buildings must support performance

The “Theatre | Concrete” discussion in Estonia highlighted how theatre buildings shape audience experiences and determine whether productions can be staged. But theatre is not defined by its building, writes Grete Liin Tuuksam in an overview published by ERR.

The audience’s experience begins before the performance: when visitors enter, leave their coats in the cloakroom, order coffee and cake at the cafe, or read the programme in the foyer. For a production to reach the stage, theatres also need technical capacity, including staff, sound and lighting equipment, and spaces where ideas can be realised.

Space shapes the atmosphere and the theatre’s wider work, Tuuksam writes, while the art created there gives the building new meanings. The discussion therefore considered theatre architecture from both the designers’ and theatre practitioners’ perspectives.

Buildings and identity

Aet Ader, president of the Estonian Association of Architects, opened the event with a talk on how buildings shape identity. A theatre’s identity emerges from the interaction between its building and the work created inside it, though one can have more influence than the other.

Ader cited the Mere Cultural Centre, whose history and aesthetics can be so dominant that they overshadow its creative work. To reduce the ideological emphasis of its hall, a Stalinist ceiling painting was recently covered with fabric and the building was renamed. Its history reaches back to the period of Estonia’s First Republic.

Another example was Tallinn City Hall, which was known at its completion as the V. I. Lenin Tallinn Palace of Culture and Sports. The Popular Front was founded there in 1988 and helped Estonia restore its independence three years later. Despite their links to Estonian history, both buildings still carry the spirit of the occupation era for many people, Ader said.

Architect Maarja Kask of Salto, one of the architects behind the recently renovated Tallinn City Theatre complex, spoke about its renovation and extension and the new possibilities created by the project.

Salto also designed the Straw Theatre, completed in 2011. Both projects involved placing contemporary theatre facilities in historic settings, where space and heritage-protection rules impose constraints. The Straw Theatre helped bring activity to the area around Skoone Bastion. With the City Theatre complex, the architects sought a similar effect: creating a well-functioning theatre, bringing life to the Old Town and making the theatre more part of public urban space.

Planning for future needs

Artist Kristjan Suits, who was involved in planning the City Theatre project, gave the event’s third talk. New theatre buildings should be designed for future needs, not only those of the present, he said. Planners should consider how long the buildings will last and how flexibly their spaces can be used.

As theatres compete with other leisure venues, they should also consider what they can offer visitors, through both their work and their buildings, that other institutions cannot.