New £7.6 million theatre for Northern Ireland

4th February 2010

Northern Ireland’s theatre capacity has increased with the official opening of the £7.6 million Theatre at the Mill in Newtownabbey. Located on the northern edge of Belfast city limits, the 400-seat venue is housed in a former linen mill and forms part of a complex that also hosts the borough council’s new Civic Centre.

The venue opened on January 30 with a gala concert featuring the Ulster Orchestra and its inaugural season will include the Northern Ireland premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, the finals of the amateur Ulster Drama Festival, visits by Shared Experience and Scottish Dance Theatre, and a revival of Martin Lynch’s The Chronicles of Long Kesh, which won The Stage’s Best Ensemble Award for its Edinburgh festival run last year.

The building forms part of a successful 15-year, £33 million capital strategy by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to provide an arts facility within 20 miles’ reach of the region’s population.

Source: The Stage Theatre at the Mill website