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Nick Curtis sings the praises of the National Theatre's refurbishment, including its new baby - the Dorfman Theatre.

So this is what £80 million looks like. Over the coming days, weeks and months Londoners will finally get to see the effects on the National Theatre of a refurbishment, NT Future, which was three years in the planning, has been under way for another three, and should be completed next year for the aforementioned sum (£3 million is still to be raised if you have any spare cash). It is the work of architects Haworth Tompkins, acknowledged master at sensitively reshaping playhouses and making them inviting even to non-theatre-goers.

Artistic director Nicholas Hytner, who will hand the — hopefully completed — building over to his successor Rufus Norris next year, says: “NT Future is all about opening the National Theatre up to more people, whether they are coming to do a course in our new Learning Centre, watching our theatre-makers at work backstage, or simply having a drink in our new café.”

It should enhance the theatregoing experience for its core audience and bring the building up to speed with the rest of the South Bank, where café culture now rubs shoulders with high art. (Read more in the London Evening Standard)

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