A DILAPIDATED theatre is to be pulled down and rebuilt with twice the seating capacity of the original building. The Lytton Theatre, on Vardon Road in Stevenage, was built in the early 1980s and is used as a rehearsal room and small performance venue by t

A DILAPIDATED theatre is to be pulled down and rebuilt with twice the seating capacity of the original building.

The Lytton Theatre, on Vardon Road in Stevenage, was built in the early 1980s and is used as a rehearsal room and small performance venue by the Stevenage Lytton Players.

Plans approved by Stevenage Borough Council last week include knocking down the single storey 80-seat venue and erecting a replacement theatre with a stage, auditorium, front-of-house facilities, workshop, prop store, wardrobe store, green room and changing rooms.

The new building - part single and part two storey - will have capacity for 162 seats, and car parking spaces will be increased from 23 to 27.

Linda Friis, treasurer of the Stevenage Lytton Players, said: "The building is over 25 years old and past it's sell-by date. We keep patching it up, but it's not going to survive much longer. It's also only got a tiny stage and no head room, so we are quite restricted in what we can do there.

"Rather than throw money at something that's falling apart, we investigated building something new on the site.

"We always thought there would be room in the town for a small theatre. The Gordon Craig is lovely, but is too big for a lot of us. This new theatre will be good for us, and other societies and choirs might also be interested in using it. Everybody we have spoken to is excited."

She added: "If we don't do something now we will simply just fade away and that would be such a shame.