Thirteen years after a beloved northside theatre closed, plans to rebuild it have been dealt a major blow, prompting leading Australian playwright David Williamson to accuse a Sydney council of putting sports ovals ahead of the city’s cultural life.
A development application to convert the home of the Marian St Theatre into a $30 million arts centre will be allowed to lapse in August following a majority vote by Ku-ring-gai Council – a move the theatre’s supporters say could effectively rule out any redevelopment for the next decade.
Built in 1906 as a community hall, Marian St became a professional theatre in 1966, hosting its first all-youth performance in 1969. Over the decades, many of Australia’s most notable actors strode its stage, including Helen Morse, Belinda Giblin, and Ruth Cracknell.
The physical theatre was shut down in 2013 due to safety concerns, forcing drama classes and children’s performances to relocate to other venues. Council initially approved new plans in 2020, then costed at $15 million.
“The tragedy is not that Marian St couldn’t be saved. The tragedy is that it is shovel-ready. They have the plans there; they could literally turn the earth tomorrow,” said Jessica Blaxland Ashby, whose grandmother, Audrey Blaxland, founded the theatre. Her mother Wendy has long campaigned for its revival.
Blaxland Ashby has watched more than 20 years of reports, studies, consultations, and reviews come to nothing. “That’s my entire adult life,” she said. “My daughter Ida deserves to see shows locally, not a four-hour round trip to the city. This is the first step to selling the site for high rise.”
Williamson, patron of the Save Marian St Theatre Action group, said the latest delays are deeply disappointing.
“I had many very good and well-attended productions of my plays there in the past and think it would be a great community asset,” Williamson said. “The design of the renovation is first-class, but the council keeps deferring a decision while approving expensive sports oval developments, demonstrating yet again where the arts rate in our national psyche.”
Los Angeles-based actor Barry Creyton had also urged the council to consider “giving new life to this once-thriving theatre” adding, “It’s of immense sadness to me to know that the theatre has been dark for so long.”
However, a majority of councillors voted to allow the development application to expire, noting that the project’s projected cost had doubled to $30.3 million as of October 2024.
The council’s application for a special rate variation did not include funding for the arts centre and no pathway had been secured via state or federal government funding to deliver the full cost of the project.
Councillor Barbara Ward said it was about responsible use of ratepayers’ money. “There is no funding available this decade, and it would be wasteful to keep a DA alive when it will likely be obsolete before it can be built,” she said.
“If council is to commit more than $35 million, it must be backed by evidence-based costs and a credible funding pathway. After more than 13 years, the community deserves transparency and certainty – not shifting costs or wishful thinking. Responsible governance isn’t a barrier to progress; it’s how we finally deliver this project.”
Ku-ring-gai Mayor Christine Kay voted to keep the development application alive, which staff had costed as being around $100,000. “As mayor, I believe we should engage further with the community to ascertain how we can provide future funding for the Marian Street Theatre,” she said.
Independent councillor Indu Balachandran, a musician, said there were no venue options for a quality performance outside private schools: “Would we ask our sporting clubs to hire private school ovals for every one of their competition-level games?”
The design by architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer offers a state-of-the-art, multipurpose arts centre featuring two theatres, a music space, community meeting rooms, a cafe, an exhibition foyer and an outdoor amphitheatre.
Blaxland Ashby said Ku-ring-gai Council had continued to invest heavily in sporting infrastructure over the past 13 years, supporting 44 sports fields, 67 tennis courts, two golf courses and spending $26.6 million on two indoor basketball courts at St Ives High School.
Meanwhile, the historic building has begun to rapidly degrade. “Most of the front windows are smashed and boarded up, there’s graffiti, and the outside is growing moss and mould,” Blaxland Ashby said. “There are broken boards and entranceways are blocked up.”
Opposition arts spokesperson Chris Rath said ratepayers deserved a thriving arts hub as its neighbours had in Willoughby and the Northern Beaches.
An online petition has been established calling for parliament to pressure the state government to work with Ku-ring-gai Council to commit to a plan to open Marian St.
From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
