THE AUDIENCE at the New Statesman at Southampton's Mayflower Theatre was sitting comfortably thanks to "a military style operation" from Dee Cee Upholstery.
The established city firm is renovating 500 seats in the balcony of the theatre. Between 25 and 30 seats, together with arm rests, are being removed each day at 7am, re-upholstered at the company's Portswood Road workshops then reinstalled in time for the evening performance.
The cast-iron frames of the balcony seats are originals and were first installed when the theatre was built in 1928. They are being re-upholstered using a hard wearing, flame-retardant deep-pink coloured Dralon fabric and special foam to meet strict fire regulations.
During the refurbishment the team at Dee Cee Upholstery will carry hundreds of tons of seating through the auditorium and remove and replace over 7,500 screws.
The project will be completed by Friday to coincide with the opening night of musical blockbuster Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Derek Caplen, co-owner of Dee Cee Upholstery said: "We're delighted to be working on this renovation project for The Mayflower and helping to restore the seating to its former glory."
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