Ian Potter State Theatre to Reopen After Major Refurbishment

Arts Centre Melbourne's Ian Potter State Theatre will officially reopen tomorrow, Saturday 3 October, six months ahead of schedule, following its first major refurbishment since opening in 1984. The 2000-seat theatre, which closed for upgrades in March 2024, is the first completed milestone of the Victorian Government's city-shaping Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation project. The extensive refurbishment designed by Melbourne's NH Architecture and Norway's Snøhetta has improved accessibility and comfort, as well as significant technical updates to lighting and sound while carefully preserving the theatre's heritage grandeur.

Bigger than four tennis courts, the Ian Potter State Theatre stage is one of the largest stages in the Southern Hemisphere; the legendary Academy Award-winning Australian designer and artistic director John Truscott designed the interiors of the venue. The beloved theatre is also home to two of Arts Centre Melbourne's Resident Companies, The Australian Ballet and Opera Australia, and is recognisable for its majestic house curtain, designed by Graham Bennett, featuring golden hand-painted Victorian wildflowers and lyrebird's tail which was carefully conserved during construction.

Arts Centre Melbourne Chief Executive Officer Karen Quinlan, AM said she was thrilled to officially reopen the Ian Potter State Theatre to audiences once more.

“With improved accessibility and comfort, combined with state-of-the-art technical upgrades to sound and lighting while conserving its wonderful heritage design, the Ian Potter State Theatre will host thousands of performances and millions of visitors across the next 40 years.”

“We will honour First Nations voices, history and connection to the place that Arts Centre Melbourne stands in our first performance on the stage - Gugu Dindi Gunyah (Many Rivers. One Home) and invite Victorians to experience Housewarming, a series of free performances celebrating the performing arts.”

Minister for Creative Industries Vicki Ward said: “The Ian Potter State Theatre has been an icon of Victoria's creative scene for four decades – now it's back, better than ever and six months ahead of schedule. Labor is backing the arts precinct and the thousands of jobs it creates.”

NH Architecture Director Hamish Lyon said: “As lead architect, we've guided the renewal of the Ian Potter State Theatre from its early planning through to detailed design and delivery. Throughout, our approach has been grounded in listening and close collaboration with Arts Centre Melbourne, Snøhetta and the project's construction, heritage, performance and technical teams. Together, we have retained the integrity and theatrical character of the original vision established by Roy Grounds and John Truscott, while enabling the theatre to meet the needs of contemporary performance for decades to come.”

Refurbishment Details

The refurbishment has improved accessibility for audiences. For the first time patrons with mobility challenges will have access to seating on all levels, with new wheelchair positions in the stalls that are supported by two new lifts, new aisles in the stalls and circle, and new rows were added to the balcony. There are also new all-gender and wheelchair accessible amenities in the State Theatre foyers. The upgrades have also made the theatre a more comfortable place for audiences with new seating and improved heating and cooling. There have also been technical upgrades to lighting and sound systems, as well as a careful preservation of the theatre's heritage grandeur originally designed by John Truscott.

NH Architecture collaborated with theatre planners, Schuler Shook, and Italian furniture manufacturer Poltrona Frau to design the new seats, which take rich inspiration from Truscott's original design and are completely custom to Arts Centre Melbourne. Each seat has wooden panels to the seat pan and seat back, to support the acoustics of the auditorium. There is now a mix of fixed seats, removeable seats for wheelchair and bariatric seating positions, and seats with a lift-up arm to support patrons with mobility requirements.

During construction, the iconic cascading John Truscott ceiling, made of roughly 75,000 individual brass spheres – each etched with a delicate snowflake pattern – was removed panel by panel and each of the brass spheres and panels were cleaned before being carefully reinstated. Behind the shower there is now a new Centre Cluster – 2.5 tonnes of loudspeakers and supporting steelwork that will live permanently in the venue as part of the integrated sound system.

The integrated sound system is one of the largest systems of its kind in Australia and more than 4500 hours have been spent across the design of the sound system, its integration into the auditorium and its installation and tuning. The new system comprises 200 speakers, 60 amplifiers, digital processing equipment and more than 12km of associated cabling. To support the acoustics of the venue, new timber flooring has been installed in each of the rows.

A completely new performance lighting system has been installed that integrates with the works undertaken during the upgrade of the State Theatre Fly System in 2021. Completing the hundreds of kilometres of cabling in the venue is a new, extensive production network using fibre optic cabling. This installation supports modern LED and moving light technologies. All controls have also been fully upgraded, now operable with the touch of a few buttons.

Visitors to the stalls and the circle will also notice a new glittering ceiling. Drawing inspiration from Truscott's design for the cascading ceiling, NH Architecture designed the new custom-moulded and hand-gilded ceiling made of more than 20 large panels. These panels feature more than 27,000 concave and convex baubles, which help to diffuse sound across the auditorium.

There have also been updates in the Ian Potter State Theatre's back-of-house areas, with a new wardrobe area and a new Conductor's Suite.

After the theatre reopens, works will continue throughout the Arts Centre Melbourne Theatres Building with the expansion of the building's basement for a larger scenery loading dock, space for a new rehearsal room and studio; a new accessible Stage Door; and new and improved places to drink and dine.

To celebrate the reopening, Arts Centre Melbourne has created a program of performances and activities, which includes works by beloved Resident Companies, The Australian Ballet and Opera Australia. The first performance in the Ian Potter State Theatre will be Gugu Dindi Gunyah (Many Rivers. One Home) on 3 October.

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