Theatre lovers have been given the unique chance to own a piece of furniture from the UK’s largest seated capacity theatre – with hundreds of seats being sold off.
A £250,000 drive to replace all the seats in the Edinburgh Playhouse will see 800 chairs in the stalls removed over the next few weeks.
The Playhouse has the largest seating capacity of any theatre in the UK, with room for 3047 people to pack into its sell-out shows.
The move is part of wider plans to upgrade and improve the facilities and will see a team of around 20 people work to uproot the seats.
And many will then be sold off to raise funds for charity and the theatre’s own youth bursary schemes.
Venue bosses hope to rake in at least £50 a chair from punters eager to snap up a piece of theatrical history, with around £3500 expected to be stumped up overall.
The renovation work follows the first phase of removals in November last year, when 800 seats were taken out in one go during a 48-hour gap between two shows.
Adam Knight, general manager of the Playhouse, said: “It’s a massive undertaking to replace all the seats in the stalls, but we are very excited about it.
“The last time this was done was 1993 – but some of the seats in the theatre are original.
“The new seats will have extra padding, with more legroom and a new style of foam backing.
“The old seats have taken quite a lot of wear and tear. Hopefully over the next three years the entire theatre will have been totally re-seated.
“Prices to buy the old seats will start at £50 – they’re not going to be hugely expensive.
“The way they are being taken out will mean they’ll require a bit of putting back together again. But I think it’s fair, as people will be making a nice contribution to the theatre.”
