Backstage tour: A new stage in life as the Crucible is reborn

It's mid-December and Sir Ian McKellen is discussing the Crucible over lunch.

Sitting in Crucible Corner, the restaurant opposite the theatre, he points his fork towards the window.

"You're so lucky to have that little miracle over there," says Sir Ian.

The "miracle" is the stage of the Crucible Theatre and it's one which has not been viewed by audiences for more than two years.

In December 2007, the Crucible closed its doors for a 15.3m refurbishment. Last year, Hull Truck Theatre spent a little less than that and got a whole new building.

The makeover has been paid for by a host of funders, including Yorkshire Forward, Arts Council England (ACE), and Sheffield City Council and some may wonder where all the money has gone.

While there have been some significant and highly visible improvements in the front of the building, it is quite possible to imagine an audience member heading inside when the doors finally reopen on February 17, taking a look around, and asking: "Why did this cost 15m?".

Backstage, the improvements paid for by the funders are manifold.

The first and most obvious is the lighting. Visitors who take in a backstage tour will find corridors and rooms lit as they enter, and become dark as they leave. Automatic light switches are just one of a raft of innovations which make the building not just more environmentally friendly, but one of the country's most energy efficient theatres.

In these environmentally conscious times, the heavy investment in energy efficiency has seen the Crucible reduce its carbon footprint by 10 tonnes per annum. Special glass has been used in all the building's windows which help to keep the venue cool in summer and warm in winter.

Inside the Crucible auditorium itself and the venue's studio space, a new cooling system has been installed which will not only keep the audience comfortable, but will also mean lower running costs for the theatre.

When the Crucible first opened back in 1971, architecture expert Sir Nikolaus Pevsner called it "Sheffield's most significant

public building... one of the

most exciting theatrical spaces in the country".

When the words "exciting" and "theatre" appear in the same sentence, the word controversy is never far behind, and so it was with the Crucible. Daniel Evans, the new artistic director of the theatre, says: "Oh people hated it when it first opened.

"The people of Sheffield thought it was terrible this monstrosity that had appeared in the middle of their city."

Not only did people get used to the Crucible, they came to love it.

In recent years, the building was awarded Grade II listed status, making it officially a building of architectural or historical significance.

This meant that the refurbishment, while significant and necessary, also had to be sympathetic.

It is part of the reason why some changes to the building might not be immediately obvious.

Daniel Bates is one of Yorkshire theatre's most enduring characters. He worked his way up from the position of stage manager at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1987 to executive director in 2004. He then went to York Theatre Royal, where he worked as chief executive until this summer when he joined Sheffield Theatres in the same role.

Although coming into position on the home straight of the two-year refurbishment project, having worked in Yorkshire theatre for more than two decades, he is well aware of the Crucible and its standing.

He says: "I used to come here as a visitor, so I know the space as an audience member.

"The thing about the Crucible is that so many people fall in the love with the place. Whether they are audience members or actors or directors, or snooker players, there are strong feelings about the place.

"So the development had to be very carefully managed to make sure that those people would still love it when it was finished."

The snooker is part of the reason why the Crucible is such a famous stage, not just in Britain, but internationally. The annual world championships are held at the venue and the upgrading of the facilities should secure the future of the game at the theatre for some time to come.

Bates adds: "I obviously wasn't involved in the project in the planning stages, but what I think is really marvellous is that they have built on what they already have here.

"Over the years, it was really obvious that the venue had suffered from a lack of maintenance and a chunk of the refurbishment funding was spent on fixing up the building and making repairs on some very necessary things, like leaks in the roof.

"Once those things were done, it was then a question of improving on what already existed."

Split into two phases, as well as the huge improvements backstage, these improvements have included much greater disabled access, a far better bar area, and a complete overhaul of the studio space.

The backstage tour included a sneak preview of the venue's new dressing rooms. The old ones were sometimes caught on camera when the BBC went behind the scenes during the Snooker World Championships. It was embarrassing to see the state of the backstage area and imagine the greats of world of snooker, and the greats of the acting world, sitting in the dilapidated rooms.

Now there are many more changing rooms, some individual, some communal and it is hoped they will play a small but significant part in continuing to bring world-class acts to the Crucible.

Daniel Evans said: "If actors come to the Crucible and talk about what a wonderful time they had, and how nice the backstage area was and that kind of thing, it might sound a little strange, but hopefully they will tell their friends. The reputation of a theatre and what the facilities are like for actors is a hot topic of conversation in acting circles and hopefully if people have a comfortable and happy time here, we can earn a reputation that will bring the right sort of people in."

With the refurbishment now all but at an end, with the final lightbulbs being checked and the infamous carpet being given one last going over with the vacuum, audiences will soon be going through the doors again. And the 15m should mean a better experience once they do.

Daniel Bates says: "At this point I think we are all now genuinely just very excited to get people back into this building."

And once there witness, as Sir Ian might say, a little miracle.