The new Aedas Arts Team-designed performance venue for Doncaster, CAST, opened on 6 September with a production by local playwright Richard Cameron in its 620-seat lyric main theatre. CAST was commissioned as part of the first phase of £300-million programme to develop a civic and cultural quarter for the city.
Aedas Arts Team’s Director Stewart King said, “CAST is a building for everybody. From the start, our aim was to create a venue that would suit a wide range of performers — from drama, comedy, and musical theatre to live music gigs, smaller scale experimental theatre — and host a variety of community and education projects”.
Inspired by local architecture and context, and by a desire to reflect the building’s purpose in its fabric, the design of the building explores the opportunities for interraction with the new public square the complex faces. Glass, shimmering metals, limestone walls and lighting are combined to dramatic effect in a building that has achieved a BREEAM rating of Very Good, one of the first theatres in the country to do so.
