Description:
In 1866 a catastrophical fire destroyed a large part of the city centre of Drammen. Although facing many problems concerning the rebuilding of the city, a group of wealthy families formed a limited company to organize the construction of a new theatre in Drammen. They engaged one of the leading Scandinavian architects of the time, Emil Victor Langlet from Sweden. He was well known for the many churches he built in Sweden and has also designed the National Assembly in Oslo. Drammens theatre, a classical building, is probably the only theatre he ever planned. It survived 125 years, undergoing some minor changes, and then was destroyed, again by fire, in December 1993. Although it was immediately decided to reconstruct the theatre, it was not so easy to achieve. No original drawings had survived and a thorough survey of the remaining brickwork had to be combined with large numbers of photographs to form the basis for further planning. The outer walls of the theatre which survived were used as a framework for the exterior, which as a result kept much of its original appearance, even though it had been connected with a new public building. The interior was altered to some degree, to comply with safety and technical regulations and with modern theatre requirements: the proscenium was slightly enlarged, the stage heightened by 3,5 meters and supplied with a horizontal stage floor, and illumination and public facilities were designed according to modern standards. Nevertheless the atmosphere of the old theatre still remains, with its gilded plaster ornamentation, remodeled after photographs, its wall paintings, repainted with old techniques in the original colors, and its old surface materials.