MALVERN Theatres has raised the money needed to replace its seats in the Festival Theatre, a significant milestone for the landmark building.

Nearly £90,000 of the target was raised by local people and keen theatre goers who ‘bought’ seats, while the Malvern Theatres Association kickstarted the campaign with a £10,000 donation and the Garfield Weston Foundation contributed £30,000.

As well as replacing all the seats, a slightly revised auditorium layout sees the creation of an additional 22 seats; over the year this means that nearly 7,000 more people could visit the theatre.

The improvements, which will include some redecoration and the removal of the side boxes in the stalls, will take place in January. Legroom will remain the same, some seats have been widened and the wheelchair spaces have been moved forward.

Nic Lloyd, chief executive of Malvern Theatres, said: “This is a momentous milestone for Malvern Theatres and we’re grateful to everyone who has donated so far. Malvern is so proud of its theatre and with public support these renovations will help ensure our place front of stage tomorrow and beyond.

“I say ‘so far’ because the rest of the building needs upgrading in the very near future if Malvern is going to keep its position as one of the country’s leading destination theatres.”

Currently less than one per cent of Malvern Theatres’ running costs are publicly funded and so it relies on fundraising as well as ticket sales to operate.

Malvern Theatres will remain open for business while the refurbishment work is carried out with minimal disruption to the usual programme.

The first performance in the newly-refurbished theatre will be Ruth Rendell’s Gallowglass on Wednesday, January 24, produced by Malvern-based Middle Ground Theatre Company.