Editorial: Scarborough deserves a theatre built for the future

The proposed revival of the Capitol could give Scarborough something it has been missing for decades: a proper mid-to-large-scale receiving theatre capable of bringing the best of touring theatre to the Yorkshire coast.

There are few more unlikely places to begin a theatre renaissance than an old bingo hall. But when you step inside Scarborough’s former Mecca Bingo on Albemarle Crescent, the possibilities are difficult to ignore.

On Saturday 19 September 2026, the public were invited inside the Grade II-listed building for tours and a consultation on plans to restore the former Capitol Theatre and return it to theatrical use. It is a rare opportunity to see beyond the peeling surfaces, the lingering smell of nicotine and years of bingo, and to imagine what might once again happen behind that grand façade.

The building opened in 1929 as the Capitol Cine Theatre. Its elaborate classical interior, proscenium arch, balcony and auditorium survive remarkably well, despite decades of changing use. Mecca eventually took over the whole building in 1977, and the bingo hall closed in 2025. Historic England describes the building’s elaborate decorative detail as having survived “virtually intact”.

The Capitol Theatre Trust now wants to take the building back to its roots, but with its sights firmly set on the future: a mid-to-large-scale receiving house capable of welcoming touring theatre, live entertainment and major productions, alongside community and creative facilities.

To my mind, this isn’t simply about reviving an attractive old building in Scarbough – it is about restoring an opportunity.

I live in Scarborough and edit The Recs, which reviews productions in the West End and increasingly on Broadway and Off-Broadway. But regional theatre is still important in our coverage. From that perspective, the Capitol proposal is particularly exciting.

Scarborough already has an extraordinary cultural calling card in its Open Air Theatre. It has hosted artists ranging from Britney Spears and Elton John to Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie, Michael Bublé, Noel Gallagher, Biffy Clyro, Little Mix and Lewis Capaldi. That is an astonishing roster for a Yorkshire seaside town.

But outdoor concerts and indoor theatre are very different propositions.

Scarborough also has the Stephen Joseph Theatre, an institution with an important place in British theatre history. It pioneered professional theatre-in-the-round and has an extraordinary association with Alan Ayckbourn: the vast majority of his full-length plays premiered in Scarborough by 2022. That history is something Scarborough should be proud of. But precisely because the town has such a distinctive theatrical tradition, there is an argument for broadening the offer rather than continually asking the existing venues to do everything.

The SJT’s main auditorium (The Round) seats 404 in its traditional configuration. Its architecture and staging configuration naturally shape the work that can be presented there. The council-run Scarborough Spa has a different role, but it too has limitations. A previous assessment for Scarborough Spa noted that the venue had technical limitations and would require upgrading to accommodate higher-quality touring product. It also concluded that the SJT could not accommodate all the touring work that might be available to Scarborough.

That is the gap the Capitol could potentially fill. Not by replacing the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Not by competing with the Spa. But by giving Scarborough another type of theatrical room.

The most exciting aspect of the Capitol proposal is arguably its potential to reconnect Scarborough with the touring circuit. Touring theatre is not a luxury add-on to British theatre. It is fundamental to it.

The latest Theatre in the UK report from the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre found that Yorkshire and the Humber was a destination for 47% of all responding producers.

And there is real demand.

More than 37 million visits were made to SOLT and UK Theatre member venues in 2025, while research shows that every £1 spent on a theatre ticket generates a further £1.40 in local economic activity. In other words, theatre is not merely something audiences consume. It is something towns can build economies around.

The problem is that touring a production around Britain is an increasingly complicated logistical exercise. A venue has to be the right size, have the right stage, the right technical facilities, the right backstage provision and, crucially, fit sensibly into a tour route. No producer wants to send a production from Newcastle to York, then back towards the coast, then south again, then north again simply because the appropriate venue doesn’t exist in the right place. A properly equipped Capitol could become a useful piece in that ping-pong routing puzzle. It could mean a production travelling from Leeds or York towards the north-east and Scotland has a logical stop on the Yorkshire coast rather than leaving Scarborough off the itinerary altogether.

For audiences, that means fewer trips elsewhere to see nationally touring work.

For producers, it means another viable venue.

For the town, it means visitors, hotel stays, restaurant bookings, taxis, drinks, parking and all the other economic activity that follows an audience through a theatre door.

And that is what I mean when I talk about bringing financial and cultural capital (pardon the pun) into Scarborough.

As editor of The Recs, I am very conscious that my perspective is that of someone who spends a great deal of time thinking about where theatre is made, where it tours and where audiences get to experience it. We review shows in London’s West End. We cover Broadway and Off-Broadway. We follow touring productions across the country. And I would love to see more of those productions stopping in Scarborough. And not just because I’d have to pay less on train fares.

I don’t expect my town to become London.

I don’t want it to become Manchester, Leeds or Newcastle.

I want it to become a place where producers look at their touring map and think “of course we can play Scarborough.”

That would be a meaningful cultural shift. It would also make sense of the town’s extraordinary theatrical history. Scarborough has already demonstrated that it can punch considerably above its weight culturally. The Open Air Theatre has welcomed global superstars. The Stephen Joseph has played a significant role in the development of modern British theatre. The town has a long history of attracting visitors for entertainment.

The Capitol could add another piece to that story.

And perhaps the most exciting thing about the building is that it doesn’t need to pretend to be something it isn’t. The auditorium already has the bones of a proper theatre. The proscenium is there. The balcony is there. The gorgeous decorative detail is there. The history is there – boarded over rather than removed by Mecca. What is required is the vision and investment to make it work for a twenty-first-century audience and touring industry.

There is a temptation with heritage projects to become obsessed with restoration for restoration’s sake. But the point of restoring a theatre is not to create a beautiful museum. It is to put bums in the seats. It is to hear an audience gasp. Or hear a laugh travel through a balcony. To welcome a touring company arrive with a production that could not previously fit anywhere in town.

It’s to give local young people somewhere to encounter work they might otherwise only ever see on a screen. James Norton credits his teenage work experience at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre at age 15 with kickstarting his entire passion for acting. Billy Howle made his professional stage debut at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 2003, having grown up participating in the venue’s youth theatre group. Tamzin Outhwaite performed in the chorus of They’re Playing Our Song at the SJT before returning the following year to play Evelyn in Alan Ayckbourn’s revival of Absent Friends.

The Capitol Theatre Trust’s public consultation is therefore about considerably more than what happens to an old Mecca Bingo hall. It is about what sort of cultural town Scarborough wants to be going forward. The building has already survived cinema, bingo and decades of changing fortunes. Now it has the opportunity to become something else again.

A theatre. A receiving house. A cultural hub. A reason for touring productions to come north. And, if the ambition can be matched by the necessary investment, a spectacular piece of Scarborough’s Art Deco heritage brought back to life.

The Recs will be watching with interest. And we very much hope that one day soon, we’ll be reviewing something inside Scarborough’s Capitol Theatre.