The Court Theatre is Moving Home

Aotearoa’s longest-running theatre company, The Court Theatre, is settling in to its forever home. On March 31, cast, crew and staff packed their bags at the shed in Addington, unpacking in the new facility.

Ex-executive director Gretchen La Roche says the intention is for this to be the theatre's permanent home.

The new space comes with more sophisticated technology and multi-purpose, adaptable spaces that will support not only The Court Theatre’s work, but hopefully the work of others in the creative and performing arts as well, La Roche says.

The $61.4 million building is on the corner of Gloucester and Colombo Streets, in the heart of the city’s CBD. It is part of the performing arts precinct, a new project launched by the Christchurch City Council, bringing the performing arts together into one area.

La Roche is keen to encourage this by opening The Court Theatre spaces to the wider theatre community, and is grateful to have been working on the space with the council. 

“There’s a responsibility to share that with others and to support the ecosystem of performing arts,” she says.

May 3 marks the official opening with the first show to be performed that evening, Bruce Mason’s The End of the Golden Weather. Show director Lara McGregor describes it as a New Zealand classic. She is keen for this performance to be something special and pay tribute to the show's first performance back in 1959.

The show will be performed in the larger of the two performance spaces, The Stewart Family Theatre, with 379 seats. The smaller space seats 150 people.

It is not the first move for The Court Theatre. It began its life in 1971 in the stone chamber of the Canterbury Provincial Council Chambers. In 1976 The Court Theatre made its first shift into the Arts Centre. This space was the company’s home for 35 years, until it was forced to relocate after the Christchurch earthquakes. 

Currently The Court Theatre is in a transformed warehouse in Addington. While only a short-term performance space, The Shed has become a part of the theatre’s history. This space was a temporary solution to ensure theatre remained alive in the city, La Roche says, and was only intended to be for six years.

As they did with the Arts Centre space, the company has outgrown the space. Now, the theatre is moving back to its central city roots, in a space will continue to foster warmth and passion within the Ōtautahi theatre community.