Annual Review 2017/18

We’re delighted to present this year’s annual review, our first under our new organisational name, Capital Theatres - a bold new brand for our business. 

The Annual Review celebrates a successful year on our stages and twelve months of vibrant activity in our learning and participation programme. Across the Festival Theatre, the King’s Theatre and The Studio more people have been taking part and we believe this has brought our theatres closer to the community they serve.

Our success working with some of the UK’s leading producers has stood us in good stead, with income up 4% from the last financial year and we have recorded a surplus for the seventh year in a row.  Surpluses are invested back into our learning programme and our buildings, helping to make them bustling and inspiring places to be.

The work we began in 2015 to help make our theatres dementia friendly communities has continued to flourish. With the help of major funding from the Life Changes Trust, we have invested in training our staff, adapting our buildings and creating a programme of engagement activity to encourage older audiences to keep coming to the theatre. In February 2018, the success of these initiatives wasacknowledged by the Life Changes Trust with an additional award of £61,740 of funding to further develop this work over the next two financial years. 

Early in 2018, the City of Edinburgh Council confirmed £4m of capital funding towards the redevelopment of the King’s Theatre. This has given a huge boost to our fundraising efforts and takes us much closer to a proposed starting date of September 2021 for the construction work.

To accompany the publication of this year’s Annual Review, we have produced a separate Impact Report 2017/18, which demonstrates how as a charity we deliver benefit to the public.

We hope you enjoy reading about the story of 2017/2018 as we look ahead to the 25th anniversary of the trust in 2019.